Kaius stumbled away from the corpse of the goblin Champion, his chest heaving as he slid to ground. He groaned as his hip crunched against the stone with his too rough movement.

    Lowering himself slowly to lie flat on his back, Kaius stared up at the vaulted stone roof of the pavilion as Rapid Adaptation worked to purge the remnants of the shamans mana from his system.

    "Well. That could have gone better." He said.

    Porkchop hunkered down next to him, his barding littered with holes and his red and black fur matted and wet with blood.

    "I think we did pretty well, no potions or tricks this time. Your spell was great!" Porkchop said encouragingly.

    "It was alright. I don''t have enough of them," Kaius responded. "I think I''m going to try to trim it down. Like, it''s got a lot of power, but we don''t really need that power. It''s only really useful against Champions, and even then I''m getting the feeling that unless they are big and slow it''s just not really worth the cost. Even if it was half as strong it would be enough to take out a common depths-born, and the whole point of the hymns is that I can switch them out."

    "That would probably be wise. If you had more we might have been able to box the shaman in, or interrupt those bloody spells it had." Porkchop finished with a huff.

    Right, Porkchop had gotten absolutely reamed by that pain whip spell. He pushed himself up into a sitting position, slowly, and checked his friend over.

    "How''re you doing? He got you pretty good."

    Porkchop tilted his head at him. "Me? I''m not the one whose bones sounded like they were made of chalk. That pain spell was just sore, it didn''t actually do any damage, and despite how I might look, those bone shards didn''t leave much more than flesh wounds."

    Kaius cracked a grin. "I''m fine too, just going to take it easy until Rapid Adaptation can purge the affliction. I got the resistance towards the end, but it''s still pretty uncomfortable"

    "Well, while you do that I''m going to see if I can find our loot." Porkchop said, rising to his feet with a grunt.

    Kaius watched his friend closely, not quite convinced that he had gotten off as lightly as he had said. The smear of dark red that Porkchop left of the stone beneath where he had lain was really not helping his case.

    After Porkchop had wandered away to poke his way around the pavilion, Kaius turned his attention to the system notification that was pinging away in the back of his mind. He''d gotten the last skill he needed for Lesser Regeneration, and not a moment too soon. The constant fractures had absolutely decimated his healthpool, and he doubted he would have been able to last much longer without slowing it down.

    He pulled up the skills description.

    Efficient Healing:

    Level 8

    Rare

    Life is the constant struggle against decay, stumble and you die. The power of the Blood, the memory of the Heart, learn these mysteries and you will live. For now.

    Enhances the power and efficacy of your Health, increasings its regenerative capacity.

    Each level infinitesimally reduces Health costs.

    It might have been a simple skill, but it was no less useful for it. Paired with his other recent healing skills, it served as a massive increase to his staying power. Even without having merged them into his second to last legacy skills. So much of what had hampered him in fights was both his depressingly small Health cap, and the sluggish rate of his healing. Any serious wound was potentially disabling.

    Though now, perhaps not. Even with only the initial boost of his most recent skills he should be able to recover from broken bones and flesh wounds without having to retreat. Unfortunately, he still had to be careful. He couldn''t recover totally severed limbs, and a heart or head wound would kill him as quickly as anyone else.

    Dipping his attention inwards, he found that the bone magic had been almost entirely purged from his system. He watched it, Rapid Adaptation attacking the foreign energy with a fervour. Corralling and destroying the curse. Over the next few minutes the remnants became scattered, and then inevitably were annihilated completely.

    Sighing in relief, Kaius watched his Health flood through his system, fixing up the final remnants of damage that had been left behind.

    Hopping to his feet, he enjoyed the simple pleasure of feeling the solidity of his footing on the stone floor. No more having to worry about snapping his shin if he moved a little awkwardly.

    Porkchop was in the centre of the pavilion, poking around the raised dais that the shaman had originally stood on to deliver his sermon. His friend looked over as he stood up, his ears perked high in excitement.

    Depths-brewed potion

    Lunacy I

    Kaius felt uneasy reading its effects. Something that boosted his magic was useful, but after his experience with the Psychopathic Assault tonic, Kaius was weary of anything that looked like it might impact his mental state.

    It might not directly have stated it, but no matter how much he squinted ''lunar wisdom'' certainly was suspicious enough that he wanted to be careful.

    Last was the fizzing lilac potion.

    Jack Rabbit Tonic:

    Common - Tier I

    Run fast enough and you might just escape your fate.

    A tonic that boosts movement speed for several minutes.

    Depths-brewed potion

    Rapid Escape I

    Now that Kaius could get behind. Not just for fleeing as the tonic suggested. Speed was an invaluable equaliser in combat, as he had just learnt first hand in his battle against the attendants. These, and potentially the Lunar Empowerment tonic, would be worth saving for the Guardian. The ogre he had spotted at the top of the city was massive, and undoubtedly would be able to splatter them with a single swing of its club.

    If it couldn''t hit them however.... Yes, these would be perfect to save for their final confrontation.

    There was only one thing that was bothering him. Kaius decided he should bring it up.

    "Well, they''re certainly for both of us. Those ones will instantly recover some of our Health, though I''m not exactly sure by how much. Those two will boost our movement speed for a while, and the last will empower my magic." He said, pointing between the different potions.

    "Why do you sound concerned? That''s great isn''t it?" Porkchop asked.

    "Well.." Kaius said, thinking. "Don''t you think it''s a little too good? Like have we actually gotten anything that wasn''t well suited for us? I didn''t know about Champions or that they guarded rewards before I got here, so I might be wrong, but everything I have heard has said that Depths rewards are random."

    Porkchop cocked his head at him. "What, like bad? Why would people bother then?"

    "No," Kaius shook his head. "Not bad. Just i''ve heard that it''s pretty common to get things that don''t suit you. Like if we found an amulet that made you channel spells faster or something. It''d still be worth taking with us, someone else would find it really valuable, but neither of us would really be able to use it."

    Porkchop grunter. "Who cares? It''s not like good loot is harming us. Maybe it''s something to do with you being Observed?"

    "...Maybe." Kaius muttered, thinking. It didn''t feel right. "But the Depths are supposed to be impartial, it''s a whole thing. Like it''s this grand trial, I can''t really see it shifting the scales for someone just because they are doing well, y''know?"

    "Kaius," Porkchop said, nudging him to grab his attention. He looked over, locking eyes with his friend. "So. What. If it''s something else, it clearly likes us. Stop worrying, and go fetch your pack so we can put stuff away."

    Kaius grunted, but dropped the matter and started to walk towards the street where they had entered. He''d left his pack stashed there. Porkchop was probably right, but he didn''t like it. It didn''t feel like something the Depths would do. It was a mystery, one he didn''t have an answer to.

    Hopefully as when he''d escaped they would learn more. He already intended to look into his family name at a library in one of the nearby major cities; he could investigate this too.

    There was no way he was the first person this had happened to, was it?

    Sitting on a throne of granite, a man so immaculate he looked carved from marble started to laugh. A thousand motes of light quivering in an inky black void at the sudden noise.

    "Kaius, my boy. You have no idea."