The hot rush of victory thrummed through him as the hobgoblins head fell to the ground with a wet thunk. Another Champion slain, another step closer to his goal. He turned to Porkchop with a grin, slapping his friend on the shoulder.

“All according to plan.” He said.

Porkchop snorted. “Yes, we were definitely planning on you getting gutted.”

Kaius gave an exaggerated humph. “I’ll have you know that was definitely part of the plan. How else was I supposed to level Adamant Body?”

Porkchop cocked one furry eyebrow at him, staring directly at the stride long rent in his enchanted scales. “Of course, how could I forget?”

Kaius scowled at his friend's look. “I never should have taught you that.”

Letting out a mirthful huff, Porkchop shoved him. Drawing a wince as his barely healed wounds twinged.

“Come on then. I believe we have loot to check. Is its axe an artefact?”

Kaius shrugged, using Identify on the oversized weapon. Thankfully, it was just a simple item, like all of the Champions gear had been so far. With how massive it is, Kaius doubted he could even pick it up. They would have had to lash it to Porkchops back, something that sounded like far more trouble than it was worth.

“Maybe it’s hidden in one of the piles of dead dwarves? Like the tree burrow after the Grimclaw?” Kaius suggested.

Porkchop let out a pensive grunt. “Hope not.”

Kaius couldn’t help but agree. The courtyard where they had fought the Hobgoblin was absolutely littered with them. Most of them were shock troops in ultra thick heavy plate. Even if they focused on checking the various squad sized groupings, there were still dozens of them.

“Well. We better get started.” Kaius sighed, staring at the ancient battlefield.

They worked their way slowly through the mustering ground, shifting through piled bodies of dwarves. It was exhausting work, even with their enhanced strength. With their plate being half a finger's length thick, every corpse weighed as much as an anvil. After finding nothing but burnt out enchanted plate in the first dozen piles Kaius had had enough.

“This is ridiculous. We should have started in the middle.” He grumbled. Stomping his way to where they had first spotted the hobgoblin. There were a few piles of dwarves there, arrayed in a circle around the hobgoblins' place of vigil.

They started shifting bodies. The first group had nothing, nor did the second. They spiralled further out.

“...Is there no loot?” Porkchop asked, concerned.

“Ridiculous! There has to be.” Kaius grew frenetic. Hawling aside armoured bones with increasing haste. Hurrying between patches. They split up, covering more ground.

Minutes ticked by, his anxious tension ratcheting up. Porkchop let out a hoot of joy.

“Kaius! Over here, I found it!” His friend called, words blurring together into a smudge of meaning as his excitement bled powerfully across their mental link.

Rushing without pause, Kaius hurried to see what Porkchop had found. He was standing over a larger than average pile of dwarves. All facing outwards like they had died to the last protecting…something. He got closer, seeing that Porkchop had hauled away the centremost bodies. Revealing a heavy steel chest embossed in gold. Foreign iconography covered its lid in a raised relief, depicting strange gods and their symbols. Palanquin handles jutted from the chest's bottom, more than one dwarf still clutching tightly even in death.

Kaius leapt forwards, grinning widely.

“Good find.” He said. Stepping past his friend to take a closer look.

It was almost seamless, apart from the distinct evidence of a simple latch holding the lid closed. A lock held it closed, though it seemed time had been far less kind to the mechanism. Rusted and broken, it was barely held on by a hair thin patch of rust. Kaius ran his hands over the seams, checking for any traps. They hadn’t seen any yet, and Explorer’s Toolkit was silent, but it paid to be careful.

Porkchop whined behind him, growing impatient.

“Just a second. Want to make sure it's not gonna blow up in our faces.” Kaius said.

Confident that the chest was safe, he yanked on the padlock, snapping it free from the latch. He flipped open the lid, nearly falling in when Porkchop just about shoved his whole head in there.

“Loot!”

Kaius smacked at his friend, shoving his head out of the way. “And how am i supposed to tell you what it does if I can’t bloody see it?” He asked, exasperated.

Porkchop let out a huff, pulling back so Kaius could see into the chest.

Kaius bent over, scanning the chest. Laying at the bottom of the gleaming interior were two artefacts. The first was a set of vambraces. Backed by leather and scalemail, the arm guards were layered in overlapping plates of a bluish steel and stretched all the way over the elbow. They were richly inscribed, chains of runes edging each plate and scale, while a larger sigil sat centred on a long slab of steel that stretched across the exterior of the forearm.

Kaius pulled it out reverently, feeling the heft and weight. It was lighter than he expected, and looked closer to plate than any kind of mail he had seen, catching the light as it reflected off the polished metal. It was a good find, while his scale stretched down to his elbow, his lower limbs were still left exposed. Every time he fumbled a parry, or slightly misjudged a block, he ended up taking wounds to his forearms. Hopefully now that would change.

Idley, Kaius noted that they looked like they were made of a similar material to his Serelian scale. With the garish clash in tones between his helmet and chest piece he had been concerned that he would eventually look like he had dressed in an armoursmiths reject pile. Thankfully, his latest find looked like it would blend into his scalemail quite nicely, the heavier platting similar to that on his pauldrons and gorget.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He used Identify on the artefact.

Vambraces of Varkhossian Deflection:

Uncommon - Tier I

The Mythwroughts of Varkhos say that true valour can only be seen in the might of one's blows, that survival is secondary to the immortality of a single, perfect, strike. Small wonder then, that their artisans have focused utterly on the art of leveraging fine defence into greater offensive strength.

Light plate and scalemail vambraces made from layered heliomite and steel alloyed plates, backed with fine scales and padded beast leather. These vambraces are enchanted to absorb a small fraction of the energy of parried and blocked blows. This energy is stored, once at capacity it can be expended to fuel an empowered blow.

Depths-wrought Artefact.

Medium Armour (Arm Guards)

Patient Strike I, Mana Conduit I, Self Repair I

Kaius grinned as he read the description. It was a fantastic find. His greatest challenge when fighting the Champions was their enhanced strength and durability. Anything that made it a little easier to turn their blades would drastically reduce the amount of injury he sustained. Even better, the ability to channel the syphoned power of their blows into one of his own might just let him stop resorting to wearing them down.

The hob was a great example, even when they had managed to trap the Champion in a binding formation, it had still taken both his and Porkchop’s combined strength to remove his head. If he had had the power to sheer through bone, the fight would have ended far quicker. More than once there had been openings to take a shot at its head, but he’d been forced to abandon that tactic in favour of fleshier targets.

“What is it?” Porkchop asked in curiosity.

“Something that should hopefully make a Champion's bones a whole lot more breakable.” Kaius said.

Setting the vambraces to the side, Kaius explained the effect of its enchantment before reaching back into the chest to pull out the next item.

It was a pendant. A quail-egg-sized black gem flecked with violet was set inside a thick silver oval lined with dense script. He held it in his hand, a long and thick chain trailing away from the amulet. Running of his hand to sway freely with his every movement. It was an awkward length, perhaps long enough to reach his chest if he wore it around his neck.

He pulled up its description.

Amulet of Inviolable Momentum:

Uncommon

When born in the fires of violence, one learns to crush their enemies.

An amulet of fellspar crystal and silver forged by ritual fire under a full moon. Enchanted to store a reservoir of channelled mana. This mana source can be expended to charge forwards with greatly enhanced speed and momentum. While under this effect, the user is partially shielded from collision forces. Effectiveness is dependent on initial weight and speed at activation.

Depths-wrought Artefact.

Amulet

Furious Advance I, Mana Conduit I, Self Repair I

Kaius looked from the long chain of the amulet to Porkchop’s neck. It should be long enough. He stood, unclasping the chain and wrapping it around his friend's neck. It fit perfectly, sliding comfortably under the raised lip of reinforced steel that surrounded the neck of Porkchop’s barding. Crouching down, he tucked the amulet away too, having just enough slack to nestle it safely behind the leather and steel plate that protected his chest.

“There you go buddy. This should suit you well. You’ve got a manipulation skill right? Try funnelling some of your Mana into the amulet. I think you’ll find its effects quite entertaining.”

Manipulation skills were an interesting group. Each one aided the control of a specific type of aspected mana, though equally all allowed a lesser influence on unaspected mana as well. This included the pool of power that all integrated beings held within them. Allowing it to be shaped, transmuted, and wielded with far more skill than the clumsy fumblings he had been using to saturate his eyes.

It was the basis of shapeless casting. Using raw power, a manipulation skill, and any number of additional modifying and influencing skills to shape mana into casting effects. By far the most flexible of the three standard spheres of magic. It was also painfully slow until someone had the skill levels, stats, and simple experience to shape raw magic at their whim. Even then, it was often still slower and less powerful that channelled spells, the second type of casting that utilised spells. Most mages relied on a combination of the two, with the runic arts being relegated to more of a craftsman profession.

A manipulation skill also meant that filling the amulet with mana should be a simple task for Porkchop, one that required so little concentration that he should be able to do it in combat.

Porkchop rolled his eyes at him. “You could just tell me.” he murmured. Though he did narrow his brows in momentary concentration as he channelled his Mana into the amulet.

“Done. I’m going to use it now.” Porkchop said with excitement.

Kaius blanched, throwing up his hands to stop his friend. “Wait!”

Porkchop cocked his head at him. Kaius sighed in relief, disaster narrowly avoided.

“Hells, Porkchop. You nearly pasted me. If you’re going to use it, go get a run up at one of those piles of corpses first.” He said, waving his hand at a larger than normal pile of dwarven plate and bones a short distance away.

Porkchop nodded, turning and moving into an easy run towards the pile of bodies as Kaius watched in anticipation. Half way there he suddenly surged forwards, accelerating from a jogging pace to something faster than Kaius could sprint. Oddly, Porkchop didn’t seem to actually have quickened his pace at all. His feet still moved at the same easy pace, but each step rocketed him forwards far more than it should have.

His friend smashed into the pile of fallen soldiers with a cacophonous crash. Despite the sheer bulk of their heavy plate, the bodies of the dwarven soldiers were sent flying away. The collision was so violent that several limbs were knocked free.

Kaius watched the violent eruption with a slackened jaw. He hadn’t expected it to be quite that effective. Porkchop came skidding to a halt, planting his feet in surprise. Kaius watched his friend turn, staring at the devastation. He paused for a moment, frowning in concentration before suddenly sprinting for another fallen squad.

If the first collision had sounded like the crack of a gong, this one sounded like a giant’s smithy. Porkchop hitting the pile of thick steel armour with a tortured squeal of metal. Bodies clanged as they skittered across the stone ground, tumbling. Limbs ragdolling with enough force to bend plate and tear withered joints free.

“Bloody hells, was that one cracked?” Kaius thought, staring at one chestplate that had borne the brunt of Porkchop’s charge. He almost felt sorry for the goblins now.

Porkchop hooted in excitement, racing back to him.

“That was so much fun!” He said, ears flicking. “Expensive though. That drained my mana pool.”

Kaius grinned. “The next Champion won't even know what hit them.”

Kaius turned, scanning the interior of the reward chest a final time. Swiping up a single golden depths-coin that he had missed. He slipped it into his potion pouch with the rest.

“Give me a moment to put these on.” Kaius said, picking up one of his new vambraces. “Then let's head up into the next district. I think I remember it looking more residential than this one. We’re going to be holed up for a while as I work on my next legacy skills. We may as well be comfortable as we do it.”

Porkchop nodded.

A few minutes later and he was done, cinching the final strap on his left arm. Rising to his feet, Kaius strode towards the megalithic staircase at the end of the mustering ground. The entrance to the next layer of the dwarven city.