Chapter 3: Greed with a Bridle
Black water slid over Severin’s right boot as the gate sealed behind him.
The stone beneath him shivered. Gold veins glowed under the flood, then dimmed as the water climbed. Ahead, a squat cache leaned toward the surface, its lid already half-submerged.
Severin stepped onto the narrow stones curving left. The nearest held. The next dipped beneath his weight and rose again when he moved on.
The chamber widened around a low ridge. Another chain of stones vanished into the water on his right. Far beyond the ridge, a closed gate stood on a broad platform. Thick slabs leaned toward each other in front of it, leaving a narrow gap beside the left slab.
A shadow crossed beneath the paths.
The cache sank another inch.
Severin reached it before the water covered the lid. He wedged the sword under the rim and levered it up. Stone ground against stone.
A pale mineral lay inside, threaded with gold. It was wider than his palm and dense enough to drag his left shoulder down when he lifted it.
The basin answered with a deep grind.
A section of the right-hand path folded into the water. The stones ahead tilted toward the ridge. Ripples curved against the current and came straight for him.
Severin backed away, mineral pressed to his ribs.
Water tightened around his right boot.
Threat Vector opened a diagonal line toward the inner stones. Severin drove Gust Vector along it. Air struck his side and tore his boot free, hurling him across the gap.
He landed with his right heel hanging over the water. The mineral pulled him left. He corrected too late.
A long body rolled beneath the place he’d left.
Water burst against the stone ahead. The foothold split under his next step. His left foot dropped, and a hooked claw ripped across the outside of his calf.
Pain flashed up his leg. Severin dropped to a knee, caught the mineral against his chest, and nearly lost the sword when its point skated over wet stone.
Blood ran hot into his boot.
The creature turned in the shallow lane. Its narrow jaw broke the surface first, followed by gripping forelimbs, a low body, and a tail thick enough to throw water across the path.
The pull had dragged him toward the deeper lane. The creature had surfaced from the same line.
Severin rose on his right leg and left the lane open.
The creature lunged.
He stepped behind a waist-high stone. The deeper water forced it around the near side. Its foreleg reached for his wounded calf.
Severin drove the sword through the softer seam behind the limb.
The blade punched in to the hilt. The creature’s jaw struck stone. Its tail slammed water over Severin’s chest, but the mineral stayed trapped beneath his left arm.
The body went slack.
He planted his right boot against the jaw, wrenched the sword loose, and opened Void Devour.
Black mist closed over the creature. Water streamed through the darkness without shifting it. The tail stopped mid-spasm, and the body vanished.
[Void Devour successful.]
[Target: Rillcoil Hunter]
Digest.
[Digestion Target: Rillcoil Hunter]
[Digestion initiated.]
Severin climbed onto the ridge with the mineral tucked under his left arm and the sword in his right hand. He jammed the mineral into a shallow notch, then pressed his left palm over the calf wound.
Blood had already soaked through his trouser leg. The flow didn’t stop, but the heat against his hand began to dull.
[Digestion Target: Rillcoil Hunter]
[Digestion Progress: 100%]
[Digestion complete.]
[New Skill Acquired.]
[Acquisition Source: Void Devour]
[Skill Grade: F — Nascent Skill]
[Skill Name: Water Lash]
Severin laid the sword along the ridge beside his right thigh and tore a strip from his shirt hem. The knot slipped against wet cloth. He wrapped the calf again, braced his left heel on stone, and pulled until it held.
The bandage darkened. The stain spread more slowly after he released the pressure, but flexing the ankle still pulled the cut open.
A cache stood beyond the ridge on a narrowing tongue of stone.
Severin reached for the water around it.
A tight strand snapped across the gap, hooked beneath the lid, and wrenched it sideways. The lash collapsed the instant the lid struck stone.
Inside, a broad mineral plate shone from the pedestal. It was fused into the rock.
The water rose again.
A farther cache went dark beneath the surface. Part of the left arc collapsed with a chain of dull cracks.
"Of course."
Severin retrieved the sword and the mineral he’d carried from the opened cache. The loose lid floated against the ridge.
Another Water Lash dragged it into the next break in the path. The lid jammed between the stones. He stepped onto it with his right boot and crossed while the current pinned it against the far edge.
The lid shifted free behind him.
The remaining path bent along the outer wall. Caches still glowed there. Each step toward them carried him farther from the gate.
Cold water climbed halfway up his shins. His boots grew heavy. The mineral dragged at his left arm and pulled him off balance whenever the wounded leg lifted.
At the next split, he turned toward the nearer glow.
At the split after that, he did the same.
Severin stopped.
The closest cache remained reachable. Another shone farther out. The gate stood beyond the ridge, across stones he’d already allowed the water to claim.
Gate first. Anything still reachable afterward.
He opened his left hand.
The mineral struck the stone beside his boot, slid over the edge, and disappeared into black water. Its glow faded before it reached the bottom.
Severin turned away. Behind him, the path to the nearer cache sank with a long hiss of trapped air.
[New Skill Acquired.]
[Acquisition Source: Will]
[Skill Grade: E — Established Skill]
[Skill Name: Appetite Bridle]
His gaze caught on the nearest glow. He kept walking.
A low wall screened the approach to the far platform. Something scraped stone behind it.
A broad animal came around the end.
Its shoulders nearly filled the path. Gripping feet spread beneath a dense body. A main crystal horn jutted from its skull, with smaller tines branching from it.
It lowered its head.
Severin shifted onto the wounded leg. Pain dragged through the calf, and his next step came up short.
He activated Pain Partition.
The injury remained. The cloth still pulled against it. The pain lost its teeth, and his leg answered.
The beast charged.
Threat Vector marked a line across a flat stone on Severin’s left. He committed to it.
A crystal tine snapped from the horn.
The stone shifted before his foot landed.
Severin stopped short, caught himself with the sword, and twisted his ribs away from the main horn. Crystal scored the rock close enough to throw sparks across his sleeve.
He recovered in a crouch.
The beast turned faster than the Scarhide had. The broken tine lay between them.
The stone had moved only after the tine broke.
Severin gave ground toward the floating cache lid. When the beast charged again, he caught the lid with Water Lash and whipped it across the animal’s forepath.
Another tine snapped.
The lid struck crooked. A gripping foot caught the rim instead of slipping, and the beast drove through. The lid spun away into deeper water.
Each broken tine had come before an accident in its favor.
Severin backed toward a trembling branch of stone on his right. He struck the shallow water beside it with another lash. The burst washed over the path and made the loose slabs clatter.
The beast pawed once.
Pale light gathered beneath the skin at the base of its horn. The light narrowed into the main shaft. Its breath shortened, but no tine broke.
Then it charged toward the wet branch.
Severin waited until its near forefoot hit stone.
He ran for the gate.
The beast followed, committed by its own weight. The angled slabs rose ahead. The gap beside the left slab was barely wider than Severin’s shoulders.
Threat Vector opened the notch.
Severin drove Gust Vector into his back and shot through sideways, sword held tight across his body.
The main horn struck between the slabs.
Stone cracked. The slabs didn’t move.
The beast’s head stopped. Its body kept turning.
Broad shoulders twisted around the trapped skull. The horn ground deeper. A hard snap sounded beneath the hide, and the hindquarters swept across the path before collapsing against the left slab.
Water surged over Severin’s boots.
He stayed beyond the gap until the gripping feet stopped scraping.
Then he crossed back and opened Void Devour.
Black mist spilled across the broad body, climbed the crystal horn, and poured beneath it. Floodwater pressed through the darkness. Nothing remained when the mist drew back.
[Void Devour successful.]
[Target: Stakehorn Prowler]
A cache still glowed near the platform. He could reach it with a detour.
Severin looked once and moved to the broadest stone before the gate.
Digest.
[Digestion Target: Stakehorn Prowler]
[Digestion initiated.]
He planted the sword point between his boots and lowered his stance. The bandage no longer showed a spreading line of fresh blood.
Pain Partition released its hold.
Pain returned in a heavy wave. His left knee dipped. Severin caught the hilt and stayed upright while the calf throbbed beneath the wrap.
[Digestion Target: Stakehorn Prowler]
[Digestion Progress: 100%]
[Digestion complete.]
[New Skill Acquired.]
[Acquisition Source: Void Devour]
[Skill Grade: D — Developed Skill]
[Skill Name: Chance Stake]
So that was what the horn had been buying.
[Evolution Rank advanced.]
[Previous Rank: Rank 8 — Tempered]
[↓]
[Current Rank: Rank 7 — Harmonized]
Severin tightened his hands around the hilt.
Heat seized his back and legs. A cold constriction followed beneath it, deeper than muscle. The sword point ground into stone as his weight drove down. His wounded leg tried to fold, but he kept it beneath him until the shaking passed.
[Existence reconstruction complete.]
[Physical and spiritual parameters reinforced.]
The bandage remained. The calf still hurt when he shifted his weight.
[Divine Trial 2 of 5 completed.]
[Divine Trial 3 of 5 initiated.]
[Trial Type: Adaptation]
[Trial Name: The Turning Furnace]
The gate opened onto a narrow lane of dark metal and orange stone. Heat rolled across Severin’s wet clothes, raising steam from his boots.
Jets of flame crossed the passage in a steady rhythm.
He watched a full cycle, favored his left leg, and stepped through a gap in the cycle.
The flame behind him died.
A different slot opened ahead.