Kaius’s legs shook as the undead pressed down on his sword. Leverage or not, it was a bad match up. Even at such a relatively low level its strength clearly exceeded his own. Regardless if he needed to train his skills or not, there had to be a better way than going toe to toe with undead in an avenue where he held none of the advantages.
A flick of his wrist disengaged their bind. Kaius pivoted his blade, sending the undead's arming sword skittering down its length and away from his body.
**Ding! Block has reached level 3!**
“Still a bit too risky, I think.” He thought to himself as he stepped back to create some distance from the undead. Still, he would need to do it at some point, and blocking higher level creatures with a significant strength advantage would do wonders for his skill growth.
The undead charged back in, sword held ready to slash him. The dance continued unabated.
He relied on his footwork, allowing a few more stinging glancing blows that failed to penetrate his chainmail. He was careful to avoid anything that looked like it would allow the undead to connect with the full might of its strength. A simple side step or parry took care of those. Even if the chain held up and protected him from being eviscerated, a full force blow would be enough to splinter bone. He’d had enough grievous injuries for one day.
Finally, with a last glancing slash across his stomach, Kaius got the notification he had been waiting for.
**Ding! General Skill Available! Would you like to learn: Medium Armour Mastery (Uncommon)?**
A satisfied smile crossed his face as he saw that he had achieved his intended result from this unorthodox spar.
The final militiaman tried to capitalise on his momentary distraction, sword lashing out in a heavy chop. Its last attempt. Kaius parried the blow, lunging forwards as his sword screeched up the length of his opponent's blade. The tip of his sword took it cleanly through its face, joined by a wet crunch as it pierced the bone.
**Ding! level 13 Wretched Militiaman slain**
Kaius rose from his lunge, flicking his sword to clear off the worst of the excess viscera. He wiped it briefly on one of the undead's shirts, before returning it to its sheath.
As he walked back to his pack he pulled up his latest skills description
Medium Armour Mastery:
Level 1
Uncommon
If you are too slow? Too encumbered? You will get surrounded. Overwhelmed. If you forgo all but the slightest defence? You cannot avoid a horde. You die. Find the balance, and you might just survive.
Skill that increases the defensive efficacy and manoeuvrability of worn medium armour.
Each level slightly increases the integrity of worn medium armour.
Each level minutely decreases medium armour's impact on range of motion.
Kaius nodded as he read the skill. Much like Light Armour Mastery, the gains were small at first but they added up quickly. Oh sure, it would take plenty of levels for something like soft copper to become as tough as steel, but that didn't mean it was unnoticeable. Already he could feel the undersized chain chafing less at the pit of his arms, freeing up his movement. Even if only slightly.
He made a mental note of the small watch house that was adjacent to the cave entrance that carved a path away from the glade. It was a notable point of difference from its cousins that he had walked past on his circumnavigation. If he had come to know anything about the Depths, points of interest such as this served as a warning, and an indicator that it was worth a closer look.
A short walk and a quick investigation showed nothing of note in the building itself. A small table and a shattered chair sat in front of an opening facing towards the cave, but he found no great treasures or empowered opponents to cross blades with.
Whatever secrets were hiding, they were probably to be found further into the cave's depths. He burned to explore it further, the familiar itch to poke around in unusual places rearing its head again.
Still, he had set himself a goal. Merge his next skill to guarantee a better degree of safety, and then go gallivanting around the depths.
He added the spot to his growing mental map of the underground glade and moved on. If he found nothing else of note in his exploration of the rim, it would be the first place he returned to when he was ready to move on.
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As Kaius walked he finally had a moment to think.
He had spent a few weeks in the Depths now, time enough for the omnipresent anxiety that its dangerous confines induced to lull somewhat. There was only so much he could endure before the stress of it all simply muted, hyper awareness simply becoming his new normal.
He needed to find out the fate of his father, that fact was as solid as adamant in his mind. Kaius’s stomach clenched as he returned to the memory of the fateful morning where Father had forced him to flee. Screaming at him as he had stayed behind to confront the bandits.
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If he’d been able to drive them off, nothing would have stopped Father from searching for him. He would have followed the tracks, as his passage through the forest had been anything but measured and careful.
When the trail led clear to the edge of the plateau? He would have taken the long journey down, to confirm his death at the very least. With his fathers skill it wouldn't have taken him long to discover the entrance he had fallen through.
There was a chance that the portal was still simply closed, and Father was merely waiting for his time. A deep frown crossed Kaius’s face as he considered it. Unlikely. It had been weeks, and while plenty of the various fish carcasses that had littered the ground had been fully decomposed, a few were relatively fresh.
As much as it pained him to admit, the chances of his father swooping to his rescue was already razor thin, and growing more unlikely by the hour.
With how vital it was that he push himself into confrontation after confrontation to fuel his growth, he couldn’t waste time hyper analysing it. It was something that he’d have plenty of time to process when he escaped the Depths.
At the very least, if a bandit group moved into this area of the Sea, there was no way they wouldn’t try to raid the nearby villagers - that is what bandits did after all. That gave him an avenue to look into.
The people of the frontier were a … rough sort. Without kingdom guards, roaming knights, or patrolled roads, they had a tendency towards their own kind of justice. No one, no one, would take bandit attacks lying down. Hell, he could already see the apoplectic rage on Holts' face if Three Fields was attacked.
Kaius couldn't help but smile as he remembered some of his own interactions with the short tempered man. The head of the constabulary was harsh, and had given him more than a few choice words when he was younger. In his defence, he hadn't been quite used to the social mores expected from him when in town.
They still considered him one of their own, even if he and his father only visited any given village a few times a year. They’d help him, even if just sharing what they knew.
…
Leaving the small watch house, Kaius made a good pace in his exploration, only briefly interrupted by an overly aggressive direboar that had tried its best to gore him. The beast had been far more difficult to fight than the one he had gotten the drop on in his first forays into the glade. In the open space it had relentlessly pursued him with aggressive charges, forcing Kaius to rely on a slow accumulation of glancing strikes that bled it dry.
At the very least it had been good training for his Footwork skill, managing to garner himself another level. He expected his meteoric growth to peter out soon, the early levels always came the fastest.
As Kaius came further around the gentle bend of the glade the clean line of the cavern wall was abruptly disturbed by a pile of rough boulders erupting from the stone, having previously been occluded from his view by the dense vegetation.
Kaius slowed, dropping from a brisk walk to eventually stop as his eyes narrowed in on the disruption. He palmed the hilt of his sword, loosening it so that he could draw it at a moment's notice. He was still a good way off, but he had learnt more than once that a moment of carelessness was all it took in the depths.
Stepping deeper into the treeline, Kaius dropped into an easy stalk as he approached the disruption to the monotony of his surroundings. As he approached, the boulders parted to reveal a massive cave entrance, easily three times his height.
He flexed his fingers, hand instinctively drifting closer to his sword as he stopped dead once more.
There was only one other breach in the cavern that he had seen of a similar size, the hunters lodge on the other side of the glade. Where he had faced a Champion. Where he had almost died.
Unlike the lodge, this opening seemed to penetrate far deeper as the passage shot away from the glade. A poor angle and shadowy interior prevented him from peering deep into its contents. His eyes scanned the boulders, their nooks and crannies providing a perfect spot for an ambush.
He found nothing.
Without any evidence of hostiles, and with Explorers Toolkit being notably silent, Kaius forced himself to approach. Ready for a horde to come barreling towards him at the slightest hint of movement.
Dipping slightly deeper into the trees for greater cover, Kaius brought himself closer with agonising caution. Now positioned front and centre before the opening, he crouched behind a bush and peered deep into the side passage.
Running deep into the rock, a sharp bend obscured its depths. Its interior was bare, only the rare stalagmite and stalactite breaking up the rough stone that formed its edges. Even in the cave proper he saw no sign of anything living or undead.
There was one thing that jumped out at him. Muddied by the light of the omnipresent moss, a soft muted glow seemed to emanate from around the caves bend. The only reason he even noticed it in the first place was its soft yellow colour, standing out in contrast with the pale blue tint that he had grown so used to. Whatever it was, there was something down the cave.
Still, with such a large opening, he doubted it was undefended. He’d be back, but for now he wanted to put a league or two behind him and make a better pace back to his camp. He readied himself to move on, still keeping himself hidden in the dense brush of the tree line in case something was watching.
The wind changed.
A soft warm gust washed over him from deep within the cave. It brought with it a scent of power, electrifying and filled with notes of growth, springtime, and the breaching of roots through fertile spring soil. The scent of magic, alchemy, and natural wonders. His skin puckered, hairs rising as a cascade of sparks ran up his spine.
**Ding! Explorers Toolkit has reached level 3!**
Explorers Toolkit screamed at him to investigate, the tantalising smell causing his skill to fire with mad abandon at the allure of the bait. His foot paused halfway through his next step as he stopped fast.
It was bait, sure as a demon lives in the hells. Nothing that could set off a treasure sense skill with that much power would be undefended, let alone in the depths.
“I really shouldn't,” He thought.
He would have to be a moron to go in there. Even if there was something good, it wasn't going anywhere. He could return, stronger and more prepared to face down whatever horrible creature waited to rip his throat out. On the other hand, a powerful reward could change everything, even the kinds that you would find on the second layer.
“Fuck it.”
Kaius turned back to the cave.