At the crack of dawn, Cali and I returned to Tahar’s village to retrieve my newly affixed armour. Her teachings had translated into two levels in the hunting skill, which was something I never thought I’d receive without killing and eating a hunter using Stigma. Hunting unlocked some very helpful abilities, like [Track] which at a basic level could be used to find small animals. At higher levels it could track larger prey and even human targets.

I wasn’t planning on using it that way though. The primary use case for my new skill was using it exactly as intended – to hunt and kill small game. I could buy a cheap bow and some arrows, and feed myself without having to rely on middlemen. If the arrow didn’t snap inside of their body, I could reuse them. Learning how to fletch and repair those arrows would save even more money.

When we found Tahar outside of her hut, she was busy covering a bundle of meat with salt to preserve it for later.

“Good morning,” I said, unsure of if she would understand what it meant.

“Hello! Here for armour?”

“Yes.”

“Ren cannot stop thinking about you,” Cali stated, “I do believe his is lovestruck with your chiselled body.”

“…No, I’m really not.”

“Apologies. I am assuming too much again.”

I didn’t even know where she got that idea from in the first place. It took more to win my heart than walking around topless, or sleeping with me, or even making me something to eat the morning after. We observed Tahar polishing off the last touches of her chores and packing the dried meat away inside her home.

Down at the market, the affixer waited anxiously for us to arrive. His face lit up when Tahar approached. The two spoke at length about something, before he ducked into his shop and returned with my armour. In one of the two indents that ran down the full length of the front was a new rune, a berserker rune.

I was pleased to have it, but I needed more that he didn’t offer. I took it off his hands and reequipped myself. It was a weird feeling to not be wearing body armour after so long. When the familiar weight of the steel rested against my shoulders, I knew it was time for serious business.

“Ren, unhappy?”

“No. It is good work. I need more.”

“Can bring more food,” she suggested.

I shook my head, “Other affixes, not sold here.”

Tahar grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the store, down a set of log steps and onto an empty field on the other side. When we were finally out of earshot of the others, she finally decided to explain the reason. “Secret place, we can go. Cursed - forbidden by elders.”

“Wait, you know where we can find more affixed gear?”

“Burial ground for previous race. Shulfor Afel. Speaking name brings divine punishment.”

“And why are you telling us this now?” I would have liked to know about this earlier.

Tahar bit her lip, “Burrowing terror. Defeat brings great honour. Gifts from elder. I have tried many times. With you and friend, may be possible.”

Tahar wanted to beat it so bad that she was willing to ignore the warnings of the tribe’s leaders. If this burial ground contained weapons and armour from a group of experienced warriors, we would be in luck. I could absorb them using Stigma or wear some of it and create a powerful new strategy to destroy the monster.

“It’s a big risk. Are you sure?”

“Yes. I am certain.”

“Cali?”

“It sounds dangerous. I believe you already know my answer.”

I sighed, “Alright. The entire expedition depends on us killing this thing. Tahar, lead us there.”

Tahar explained more, “Short walk from village. Tales to scare children spoken freely.”

The first length of the journey was similar to the route that we followed to kill the beast the day before. Though when we came across a wide river, instead of hopping over the stones we turned left and followed it down into a nearby valley. The ground was muddy and hard to walk through. Luckily, I had the stamina to handle it. Cali was struggling. I offered her my hand and helped pull her through the bog.

As we observed Tahar from behind, I studied her tall form once again. For some reason my brain kept imaging her taking flight using the feathers attached to her arms – though such a prospect was patently absurd. There was no indication that they had the adaptations needed to do such a thing. A curious group of people, clearly descended from a type of bird themselves, but grounded all the same. Had an erstwhile adventurer bedded some kind of avian beast and given birth to a new species? Or was it merely a coincidence that they resembled humans so closely?

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“We are here.”

‘Here’ was a relatively unassuming stone archway that led into a long, dark hallway. It was built beside a well-worn dirt pathway, next to the smaller end of the stream that we had spent the last hour following. Someone had tried to obscure the entrance to the tomb by using a pile of rocks, but inclement weather had knocked them loose. They weren’t maintaining this place actively, probably out of fear for the curse that Tahar mentioned.

“Last chance to give up.”

Tahar wasn’t going to hear any of that now. She mustered her courage and moved the remaining stones aside to open the entrance fully. I ignited my lantern and stuck close. I shivered as we stepped out of the sunlight and into the cold, cool confines of the tomb complex. The marble walls bore a striking resemblance to the walls inside the Tall School, but instead of being kept completely bare and smooth, they had decorative patterns and deep indents carved into them.

What struck me though was the size of the passage. It was significantly smaller than the Tall School. Assuming it was to be used by the same people, why would it be designed in such a way? Tahar’s head threatened to bang against the ceiling. Anything taller would have to crouch and crawl through, even that may have been a difficult task.

Just as the reach of the outside sunlight started to wane, we came across an open doorway that led into a larger chamber. The full scale and size of the room was not apparent until we stepped through. There were two stone staircases that led down to a main floor-space. It was cold, dark and damp. Nobody had maintained this place for a very long time. The floor underneath us was covered with uneven brick and stonework.

Three more doorways led in three different directions. Old and rotted furniture lay discarded next to the walls. We descended the stairs. I reached down and picked up what seemed to be a decorated chair arm. It was so large that I could use it as a blunt weapon. They were built for people much larger than us.

“What are we looking for down here?” I asked.

“Graves. Bodies placed in… storage. Weapons too.”

We decided to go through the door on the left first. There was another corridor, with another branch heading to the right and one at the very end. The door on the right led to the first of many rooms within the tomb. Inside were dozens and dozens of smaller doors embedded into the rock. It reminded me of a morgue. That was where the fallen warriors were being kept.

“Find here, unlikely. Looted before.”

That was the kind of thinking that could lead an experienced thief to missing something important. I wanted to be thorough. I went to the front left corner and got onto my hands and knees. The brass handle that allowed the opening of the chambers was rusted and loose. It broke away the moment I tried to apply any force to it.

“Typical.”

I scoffed and tossed the broken metalwork aside. Instead, I slipped my fingers between the cracks and used my incredible, Stigma empowered strength to pull it opened the old-fashioned way. It was still heavy! These coffins were not made from wood. Instead they were carved from a different type of rock to everything else. A plume of dust escaped from inside.

“What in God’s name is this?” I said out loud. I was expecting to see a skeleton, but the conditions of the tomb had created the perfect environment for them to decay into nothing. The coffin’s base was filled with dirty water, a flew white chips remained, floating on top. I could see the outline of where the body was meant to be placed - half submerged.

Tahar was wrong about one thing, nobody had been here and looted these graves yet. A fine-looking sword of strange construction was placed on the left side. Unlike the body, it had somehow been perfectly preserved, even with the adverse elements. It had a long, silver blade that cured around like a sickle. I counted at least three different runes engraved into it. The smooth black handle was much too large for my own human hands.

I hefted the large blade out of the coffin and held it up to my lantern’s light, “Fucking sci-fi bullshit.”

“I was wrong,” Tahar admitted, “Graves untouched.”

“I guess those scary stories worked better than you thought. Not to mention how heavy these damn coffins are.”

A scare story, combined with a small population and difficulty in looting them. This was the jackpot. If these affixes were even remotely useful I had a good shot at making something worth a damn, and by extension killing the monster that broke my arm.

“Let’s open all of them, put anything we find in the middle.”

Cali and Tahar teamed up to do the same task that I could manage alone. More and more I was realizing that Adelbern wasn’t joking when he said I was much stronger than a normal human. Tahar was a seven-and-a-half-foot tall powerhouse, and she couldn’t emulate what I was doing. Some of the coffins were empty, but there was no evidence that they had ever been touched. The collection of strange and esoteric weapons slowly grew and grew. By the time we had checked every single coffin, there were seventeen or so.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Cali said, examining one of the long-swords. These were definitely weapons from another age and culture, completely alien to us. The alloy that the blades were made out of was nearly as white as chalk, and very light. They must have been an advanced group of people to make something like this.

Tahar shied away from the pile. “Still scared of curses?” I asked.

“Have bad feeling.”

“I detect no unusual magical markers on these items, nor from the tomb itself,” Cali said, “We should be safe to continue investigating.”

“Now that we have all of these weapons, I need to inspect them and see what we have.”

Stigma appeared beside me and tutted, “Master, would it not be more efficient to consume them all and move on? You can admire your collection when we return to camp.”

I glanced at the spectre out of the corner of my eye, “Why? Do you have unlimited storage for them?”

“No, but the number I can store is sufficient enough. Part of why I’m such a powerful weapon is my ability to change roles on the fly.”

For once, a good idea that didn’t come with any hidden downsides. I drew the blade and pressed the tip against them, consuming each in turn until all of the runes had been drained of their magical power. Tahar didn’t understand what I was doing.

“Taking affixes,” I stated. She seemed even more befuddled when I said that though. Stigma’s numerous powers and caveats weren’t common knowledge to the people who studied the damn thing. Well, she didn’t really need to know. All that mattered was that I’d successfully retrieved a set of abilities that I could use later.

I smiled, “Next room!”