Time Since Reckless Self-Endangerment: 2 Days 18 Hours

Goal: Kill 'Baby Boots'

The jars wobbled slightly and the sound of breaking glass faded. Lavhin watched with amusement. “Most clever.” He praised Nic.

Nic was already picking up the syringes to examine them. He started with the dark vial.

Angler Centipede Venom. G-Class (Aberration) // Treasured Artifact. This poison bears the power to seal away Essence and cripple a cultivation base. Concentrated through distillation, this syringe acts far faster than a bite.

Satisfied, he examined the latter. This one was the antidote.

Spiritual Antidote. F-Class // Treasured Artifact. Designed to purge venoms that restrict and damage the cultivation base.

“Inject it.” Lavhin urged. “Before the venom ruins you.”

“This odious little man…” Sophia began, but Nic spoke over her.

“Won’t that just make Sophia degrade faster? You said the poison was slowing the transformation down.” His cultivation base was already beginning to slow again, turning solid and painful in his veins. The usual fire of energy that flowed from his core was more like burnt-out sparks.

But he’d suffer that pain for days if it meant not becoming like the Experiments.

“Oh. Ah. I suppose- Yes I suppose that’s true.” Lavhin admitted.

“Then we’ll wait until we’ve fixed that.”

In the corner the undead monkey howled, throwing itself against the jar. Trying anything it could to reach the container of Spiritual Essence and unleash the trap.

Nic walked by with a smile.

Disaster averted, Nic could simply return through the darkened hallways. The soldier-dolls who were meant to spring to life and block his way sat lifelessly in the corners. Lavhin floated alongside him, watching Nic with beady eyes made of ghostly light.

“So…” There was something Nic was curious about. Curious enough to spend his time talking to this monster. “Was it the System that declared you a heretic? Or Logos did?”

“Oh, the minions of Logos, of course. The System itself cares very little how you achieve power. Only that you do. Logos, on the other hand…” Lavhin frowned. “Well, I shouldn’t speak ill of a god. But yes, it was the Low Tomb who gave the order to hunt me down.”

“Really? Because I have a quest to hunt down another heretic in this Dungeon, and I’m curious where they might be hiding. It doesn’t seem like the System put them here on purpose…”

“Another heretic? Here? This world truly has a strange fate.” Lavhin just laughed. “Someone must have helped them creep in like a roach. It’s not unknown for dark researchers to hide out on Pre-Integration worlds. If I had moved my research to some backwater I could have survived another few decades.”

“Why didn’t you?” Nic was genuinely curious now.

“I grew overconfident. I slew the first round of petty heroes and local cultivators that Logos threw at me. Fools sent to their death with quests. What I didn’t realize was they were only buying time. Logos had already sent an Inquisitor on their way.”

Silently, a chime rang in Nic’s head.

The quest had updated.

“Blood-Soaked Sands”

Logos created the Sand Devils when his weapons of war distorted common creatures to terrifying new forms. Now, an interloper studies this transformation and attempts to improve on it. This heretical research must be ended.

Destroy the Ascended Sand Devils (1/6)

(Optional) Slay the Heretic (0/1)

Rewards- Moonseal Credit and Spatial Pillar Credit.

5 Days Until the Inquisitor Arrives.

“Not a single weapon I had could even wound that bastard. He killed me- me!- in a single blow.” Lavhin snarled.

“That’s nice.” Nic said absent-mindedly. Lavhin whipped his head around to glare at him. “But I think I was asking where they might be hiding? Those runestone surrounding the valley hid you pretty well. Should I be looking for another suspicious ring of stones?”

“I-” Clearly holding back his anger, Lavhin paused and wiped his glasses. “Yes. Yes there would be physical anchors holding the concealment glyphs. They would need to surround the heretic’s lair to hide it from the eyes of Logos and the System.”

“Good. Let’s go see your tower, and get this over with.”

“Yes. Let’s… get this over with…” Lavhin said, and Nic realized. This madman really had no idea how obvious he was. He really thought he was baiting a clever trap, and Nic had no idea.

It was almost sad in a way.

---

The steps up to the tower were in the far wing. By this point, evading the crystalline Experiments had become second nature to Nic, but there were far fewer of them here. Almost as if they were avoiding this place.

Nic strode up the stairs. “Sophia?” He whispered, watching Lavhin float in front of him. “How do I deal with this ghost?”

Sophia’s voice was shaky but stronger than it had been. “Projection, Nic. He’s- a projection. If he was a ghost things would be far easier. The main way is to find where he’s projected from and destroy him at the source. Barring that a pulse of aura can disrupt him for a few seconds.”

Nodding, Nic proceeded up.

At the top was a rippling barrier similar to the one holding Blind Mograithe’s room closed. A warning by the System that there would be no easy treasure this way - only a challenge.

Room Challenge:

Defeat the Final Experiment

Reward - System-Assessed Silver Merit

First Clear Reward - System-Assessed Gold Merit

“Yes yes, there may be one final guardian. But you really shouldn’t worry about that…” Lavhin tried to insist. Nic didn’t need to hear it.

He pushed through the doorway, ignoring the danger sense screaming to retreat. Beyond was a small, circular room, full of rich treasures. A cultivation mat of black jade sat beneath the window in place of a bed. A small bookshelf held dozens of scrolls. A tree in a pot besides a floating crystal lamp grew snow-white flowers and pink fruits. A workstation strewn with tools.

But at the center of the room was a twisted chair. It was made of rusting iron with crude leather straps for holding a body down inside. Above it was a telescoping metal arm with a fractured shard of pure blue crystal held in a pronged needle, right above where the bound person in the chair’s skull would be.

A thin line of white spiritual power connected Lavhin to the crystal.

Nic didn’t even hesitate. His right foot slammed into the floor and he took off like a shot, prepared to crush the crystal the instant he saw it.

“You-” Lavhin was shocked.

But his guardian wasn’t.

The Eight-Eyed Mantle warned him of the incoming strike as the monster dropped from above, and Nic slid aside by slapping one hand on the floor and using adhesive aura to anchor himself for a quick turn. The simple use of aura made his body ache and his meridians flare with pain but he gritted his toothless mouth and bore the agony.

Standing bent, one fist rammed into the ground where he’d been standing, was a soldier-doll. It really did resemble a black-shelled insect. A dark cape swung around its shoulders, fluttering in the wind from its drop attack. Blue eyes of faceted glass stared out at the world.

It rose and came after him. Razor-sharp fingertips swiped through the air in a brutal flurry that came down on his shield and chipped away fragments of tortoiseshell. Each blow was a shock radiating down through Nic’s arm, jarring the bone in its socket.

He tried desperately to evade but that only lead to him being pushed towards the wall faster as he darted between blows like a leaf on the storm. He held a faint edge in speed, but the creature’s size and weight gave it all the momentum in the fight; he was losing by expending more energy and he only had to slip up once.

In seconds he was at the wall. With no other choice, Nic twisted and shot up the stones, using adhesive aura on his feet to run straight upwards in an arc and try to slip behind the soldier-doll.

Instead, its hand shot out and ripped a handhold into the stone. It yanked itself up, throwing its body into the air, and its knee rose into Nic’s gut like a comet. The world turned white as pain filled his head and the breath left his lungs at the brutal collision.

He flopped to the ground and the beast landed, its huge claw dropping down over his skull.

“Excellent!” Lavhin shouted. “Now-”

Nic called to the tiger.

In a burst of flame the spirit tackled the soldier-doll from behind and drove it off of Nic. Huge claws flashed and tore apart a segment of armor above the husk’s shoulder, exposing stringy purple flesh below. Lavhin howled in shock as the two monsters roared.

The tiger reared up to claw the doll’s eyes out. Instead, it caught the soldier-doll’s knee to the belly. In the moment the tiger was winded its opponent dug two hands deep into its flank, spun, and flung it agains the walls.

The tiger slumped down, breathing heavily. Even a spirit couldn’t withstand such punishment forever.

Nic didn’t have the luxury of breathing hard. Although his lungs ached, he had to hold each gasp of air as long as possible to preserve the count of three breaths before the tiger-spirit vanished.

It was worse than just holding on to precious little oxygen. Holding on to the effect made aura pressure build in his chest, burning like fire. A bad blow or a sudden release could actually rupture his lungs entirely.

Sucking in his first breath, Nic rose from the floor.

The tiger rose alongside him.

The soldier-doll stood on the middle, knees bent, arms hanging limp at its side. It moved like a drunk marionette when it wasn’t fighting. As if only the urge to kill gave its body purpose.

“What are you waiting for?” Lavhin shouted.

It shot forward. Nic used his shield to deflect the first blow, sending it scraping off the angled edge of the tortoiseshell. Without hesitation he pushed forward, managing to slip around the second and slice his opponent’s legs. The tiger-claw slid neatly off the black armor in a spray of sparks- without doing a single speck of damage.

It kicked him and the first breath left his lungs as he rolled across the floor. Blood spewed from his mouth as he lay in a heap.

The tiger slammed into it from behind, ripping its claws across the injured shoulder. Black blood like oil oozed away as more armored plates were torn free and more of the gristly purple flesh below exposed. It slammed an elbow backwards into the tiger’s muzzle, turned, and drove a trio of brutal right hooks into the tiger’s wounded flank.

The beast was sent to the ground and the doll lifted its foot to crush the tiger’s throat.

Nic launched himself onto its back, opened his mouth, and spat poison across its wounded shoulder with his second breath-

Or tried to.

Instead his cultivation base revolted. Nothing came out but blood as his veins seized, his heart skipping a beat as his head went black and white with throbbing pain and flashes of unconsciousness. The doll reached up, seized his arms as he gripped its throat, and flung him across the room.

Nic landed hard.

The tiger stood between him for a single second. But long before Nic could release his third and final breath, the doll-soldier demolished the wounded spirit with a series of brutal kicks and punches.

The doll-soldier grasped Nic by the feather-shaped gills and dragged him painfully across the floor. Towards that evil chair and the needle of crystal waiting to plunge into his skull.

“Please. Please don’t be a weapon. Don’t count as a weapon...” Nic thought. His scarf slowly slipped towards his bag, the golden hand dipping into the mystic space. “Please work.”

“You see, Nicolas, my friend. I need a new body. I’ve successfully transformed myself into a new breed of life, similar to a Sophont but so much more. I need someone like you. Weak-minded enough to dominate. A simpleton. A chump…” Somewhere in the distance Lavhin was ranting.

“And when I implant myself into your skull and rip out that puny misfit of my creations, I’ll be alive again! Whole and ready to continue my research. Your body is a little smaller than I expected, but I’ll make do...”

The doll lifted Nicolas up and shoved him into the chair. The first strap cinched around his right wrist.

And he lunged for its eyes with his left. It caught his hand easily, almost seeming amused.

Until his scarf whipped around and plunged the syringe of centipede venom down into its exposed shoulder. The beast’s innards were made of Essence, artificially solidified into flesh. It began to melt as the concentrated toxin poured through its system.

Nic grinned and spat blood across its face as it reared back and screamed in pain, clutching at its shoulders as the whole limb gave way and dropped to the floor. Gooey threads of half-dissolved flesh collected between the severed arm and its stump of a shoulder.

“What?!” Lavhin’s eyes bulged with shock behind his glasses. “No, no, I refuse! Do it! Finish the job, damn you!” His incorporeal hands whipped at the doll-soldier but went right through its black carapace.

Nic peeled open the leather restraints and slid down. The doll-soldier’s eyes were clouded and its armor was cracking from within. Lifting the Sandrider Blade from its sheath, Nic looked to his opponent.

Its hollow eyes held just a flicker of life. Enough to acknowledge a good fight, and a worthy death.

As Lavhin screamed in frustration Nic stabbed forward through the breaking black carapace and impaled the doll-soldier through the heart.