"If you're okay with it I was thinking that could be your name?" Addressing his savior Typhus smiled.
'I'd be honored to accept the name given by my creator' creepily Nocturne opened his jaw trying to return the smile.
[Nocturnal Sanguis Skeleton Level 3]
"Wow… You got 2 levels from that?!"
'2 levels and a new skill, [Ghoulish Wound] it appears what we killed was a ghoul'
"Hm…"
Giving his boned bodyguard a pat on the shoulder Typhus groggily moved towards the cave holding his burnt hand. A bony hand stopped him, 'Creator, we don't know if that was the last of our assailants, maybe we shouldn't press forward?'
"If it's anything like the portal, that was merely the first wave unless we can quickly kill it. I have a theory that the stronger the undead spawned the longer the cooldown between waves, meaning if we don't push now we won't have the element of surprise anymore. So we push."
Keeping his arm at a 90 degree angle his wrist rested on the lapel of his robe, his burnt hand dangled within. Snatching his sword from the skeleton he walked forward unto the breach.
Having to bend his back awkwardly to move past the melted skeletons that had guarded the entrance, a loud noise followed in his wake as Nocturne wouldn't deviate on its path causing the melted skeletons to shatter in his way while he pressed on like nothing happened.
3 meters into the cave, darkness enveloped the one handed Typhus and his glowing skeleton companion, Nocturne cast a purple light for a meter of sight with its natural ambient death mana. Heavy steps, and creaks of bones echoed deep into the tunnel. After a few minutes of walking Typhus debated turning back and deeming the cave too dangerous if the undead came from much deeper within meaning a new ghoul would have the tactical advantage in a low visibility narrow passage, giving a portal too much time was a death sentence if his theory was correct. When purple lights started flashing with growing intensity some meters ahead of them.
Almost 100 meters deep, a clump of crystals lit the cave walls like a candle with a purple flame when the two approached. Grinning Typhus planted his sword in the softer dry dirt of the cave. Numerous finger sized crystals lined the walls in a small strip illuminating this section of cave perfectly. With a quick rip Nocturne lifted the largest of the crystals, half a meter long and 6 centimeters in width. Not increasing visibility by much but he could now see 3 meters in any direction when held out in front of him.
"Use your free hand and hold this, please"
'Formalities are not necessary Creator'
"Should I be concerned by how much your speech has increased from a few levels?"
Bickering with Nocturne caused Typhus to turn his head towards his new friend for just enough time to take a careless few steps forward. Out of the pitch black a gray unmoving hand appeared in front of Typhus with the purple light casting a shadow of a desperately reaching hand into Typhus's face. Startled, he braced with his sword defensively, slipping and kicking out loose dirt like wearing sandals on ice. Taking uneven steps back his heel landed awkwardly on a large rock, momentum carried him making him try to swing his arms like windmills unfortunately his injured hand got caught in his robe adding to the tragic movement. Finally, he fell backwards onto his ass, with an unmanly yelp that continued bouncing off the dank walls for entirely too long. Nocturne's empty eye sockets glared down at him unjudging which somehow made the embarrassment worse.
In front of Typhus was a statue that looked concerningly perfect. Her small hand reached towards the light at the cave entrance 100 ish meters away from where they stood. Seeing a full ghoul statue up close Typhus mentally noted that her glasses and clothes hardened with the woman. Pity replaced shame as Typhus stood back up, she had been caught by the ghoul in the despair of blindness the caves environment created.
Using his inquisitive mind, the setting painted a grim scene of being caught within the darkness of the cave by the monster, her stone eyes filled with complete terror. Two lines of hair framed her face, highlighting the stone tears from terror filled eyes that looked behind her deeper into the dark. Frozen with an opened mouth appearing to be mid scream.
Was this where she was teleported after the bullshit integration? How in the absolute fuck was this fair?
"Let's free her" Typhus broke the silence to his mouthy companion while tightening his grip on the silver sword. 'Yes Creator, but… there's something you should know'.
Motioning for Nocturne to continue Typhus inspected the statue while he listened. 'In the skills description it states [Ghoulish Wound-Rare- turn an injury into a curse. Begins the transformative process to create a ghoul that adheres to the will of its creator]'.
Thinking about it, there had to be some kind of trick or mana manipulation at play. From what little he understood about 'magic' it wasn't something that worked outside of the rules of whatever the fuck dictates natural law in this place. It reminded him of how early alchemists viewed science as magic. Chemical compounds would mingle to create extraordinary reactions often being resolved with an aspiring alchemist being burned alive by church or state.
Up to now Typhus had already confirmed mana was at least occasionally formulaic, as in having cause and effect. Affinities influenced the form mana took, mana combined with an affinity could be molded into spells. Spells cost mana, movement cost stamina, no matter the power level there was a degree of exchange, a transaction of give and take. So what was the exchange he had to make to free the girl?
Why is this bitch his problem?
Pausing mid thought he scoffed at himself, where did that come from? He wasn't the most virtuous person and something that sociopathic would cross his mind every so often to address a hypothetical efficiency problem. But never when it came to helping people who were innocent of the punishment. Brushing it to the side, now wasn't the time for a personal deep dive into his psyche.
Turning with a finger tapping his lips Typhus asked Nocturne, "How did you free me?"
'When I killed the ghoul you were released a moment after'
Investigating the surrounding floor of the statue revealed she had struggled at first. Dirt was moved and odd patterns of footprints littered all around the statue with drops of lively red blood dried in clumps directly below the cursed woman. Her steps originated from deeper within the cave, drops of blood fell between every other foot fall on the floor. Those prints that led into the dark were more distinct implying heavier foot falls, while the scuffle was less imprinted.
She knew how to escape, even while seemingly injured. Playing out the fight in his mind she had dodged downward and either rolled or fell forward onto her belly. Sliding to the side created a crescent wave of dirt, from there she stepped forward… an attack? With what? She held no weapon and none were around them.
Her forward step had too much weight beneath it, being the deepest imprint by a large margin deeper than his own when he stomped as hard as he could. Implying she tried to turn and run as the statue process began turning her foot to stone.
"I want to see where we killed the ghoul, you stay here and defend the statue… If she turns into a ghoul while I'm gone… Kill it."
If a skeleton had a look of begrudging resolve Nocturne embodied it with that request.
Walking toward the sunlight, Typhus purposely took long slow steps to allow more time to ponder.
In the order of events from when he had turned into a statue, scratch, spread, statue, kill, freedom. In her case, injury, multiple steps and a fight, spread, statue? It was inconsistent for her to be able to fight back so long if the ghoul had attacked her at the same inhuman speed. Was the skill passive? Thinking back, Nocturne hadn't specified. Did a ghoul have to activate it to use it? That would explain how she could have been able to fight back even after being wounded. Or was she attacked by something else first then the stronger scavenger ghoul stole the prey? The ghoul had only attacked Typhus after he had burned his own hand to a crisp.
Coming back to the pile of stone he emerged from, Typhus knelt down and gently placed his sword on the ground next to him. The stench of death consumed his senses causing him to bring his cloak over his face to just above his nose. The ghouls corpse was thrown after being ripped apart with black intestines connecting the two halves in a long rope. Black green stained dirt showed the torrent of blood Nocturne had stood beneath while executing the monster. Placing his hand over the grass all he could feel was death mana being pushed back by the environmental life mana. Dead grass started to regain its red color at a much quicker rate from where Typhus had released his flames.
Brutal.
Typhus lifted a handful of the coarse brown dirt; he didn't see any unusual glints of metal and felt no real abnormal sensations when letting it fall back to the ground. Picking up the stone that had encased him, it cracked and shattered like dried clay between his fingers. Typhus could feel an unidentified mana type slowly eroding on the outer shell. Flipping the stone over his finger momentarily stuck to the inner clay like fly paper when infused with death mana the adhesive couldn't be physically broken from the prisoner within.
What a malicious tactic… but how does that tie into saving the girl who got screwed by circumstance? Racking his brain there must be a reason, everything had a reason to be. There was nothing that really stuck out at the site other than the unending sprays of greenish black blood that filled the area.
Blood
Scrambling back to his feet he returned to the pile of rubble from his statue. Sifting through the brittle pieces he found a large shard with ghoul blood sprayed all over it from when the ghoul was unceremoniously killed less than a meter away from him. Squishing the piece between his thumb and index finger the stone side was as weak as the other pieces but the sticky goo was completely gone from the inside of the fucked up cocoon.
Sprinting to the unmoving corpse of the creature Typhus thanked his 'creator' for making him uncaring about death and viscera. Stabbing his sword into the chest of the creature, white dust rose from the barbaric incision. Leaning with his body weight on the handle he used the weapon like a crow bar separating the fourth and fifth ribs with a crack. Lurching him forward as the bones shattered. Ripping the heart with more effort than he expected, Typhus ran back into the cave. Nocturne stood like a sentinel with his sword drawn 'death staring' at the woman.
"I want you to squeeze this above her head as hard as you can" Typhus half yelled down the tunnel at his companion as he awkwardly ran, throwing his shoulder wildly to keep his non functioning hand in its makeshift brace. Taking the ghoul heart from Typhus, Nocturne complied immediately with a burst of ghoul blood cascading down the face of the terrified statue.
Seconds passed by in silence, before a frustrated but determined Typhus turned around to continue with his investigation. His eyes widened in the darkness as he made another realization to the mystery…
The skill [Ghoulish Wound] never specified when the victim would transform. All the description said was, 'begins the transformative process to create a ghoul that adheres to the will of its creator' what if the statue was a chrysalis of transformation without a time limit? How long has this statue been here? Meaning if they released the 'woman' from the statue they could be birthing a wild ghoul since they presumably killed its creator. With that if a ghoul creates more ghouls, where did the one that attacked him come from? Was there a hive of those creatures somewhere or did they appear naturally in the right conditions?
'To do action, one must do thinking, to think doesn't require any action that must be done'
Or were ghoul hives created by intelligent fools who want to discover before they consider repercussions.
Movement whipped his head back around, directly between the statues eyes a large crack appeared. As ghoul blood dripped from it, the statue shook, then all at once it shattered. Sending grey fragments out all around the falling body.