***

I blink, the darkness impenetrable before us.

Kamar huffs, bringing the pack around and opening the flap, rooting around inside. He pulls out a small jar, shaking it. He mutters quietly, “I got it from the thri-kreen.”

A neon blue glows from inside the glass bottle as the fungus inside starts glowing. It throws our shadows on the sides of the walls, twisting them.

Makes us look kind of like monsters. I think idly.

I clutch to Kamars back, my arms wrapped around his thick and furry neck. He lumbers onwards, carrying the bag with the folded up stretcher attached to it.

The tunnel in front of us continues onwards, stretching, twisting and turning deeper into the earth. The air is dusty and dry, a earthy smell permeating the tunnels.

We round a bend, and Kamar stops.

In front of us the tunnel branches off into three different directions.

“Which way do we go?” I whisper into Kamar’s ear. We have to be quiet so that we can hear if the hulk comes back and so it doesn’t hear us.

He inspects the entrances of the tunnels, and stops on the middle one. He points and shakes his head.

I look down at the floor he is pointing at. There are deep gorges in the rock and droplets of a sticky black substance leading deeper into the tunnel.

That’s blood. It must be from when Kamar fought off the umber hulk. He must have injured it.

The asper lumbers over to the rightmost tunnel, peering in. The blue light from the fungus lights up a little ways in, but the darkness pushes back, hiding anything in the tunnel.

Kamar waves with his hand, pointing to this tunnel and nodding.

I tap on his shoulder twice, showing that I agree.

Kamar starts walking into the darkness of the tunnel, and I strain my eyes to see anything within the pitch black.

I could Adapt my eyes for dark vision, but that takes up katra. I don’t have a lot of it, and some of the katra I have recovered is going to healing my fractured and broken bones. I want to be healed as much as possible before the umber hulk comes back for us.

I feel a smile flickering at the edges of my lips. A couple months ago, I would probably be freaking out. But now, I have grown used to this sense of constant danger and death lurking behind me.

A thought occurs to me, one that I haven’t even considered. How long has it been since Amia was attacked?

It must have been quite a bit of time. I know I spent several months in the Jungle of The Gods, and a few more with the Talri Clan. After that, time seems to have just sped by, and I never really reflected on how long it's been. I think it's been almost a year. Though, I am not sure.

For some reason, this weighs done far heavier on me than I think it should. I was 15 when the village was attacked. Did I miss my birthday?

It's a silly thought. One that you would think someone who is being hunted by a umber hulk wouldn’t have, but I can’t get it out of my head. I think I missed my birthday.

My birthday is on the 12th day of winter's end. And winter has passed. So I’m sixteen.

I’d completely missed my birthday without even thinking about it twice. Time flies when you are adventuring.

I suppress a chuckle at that. Adventuring! I guess there is no denying I have done my fair share of adventuring.

I’d survived the Jungle of The Gods, helped fight against the chimera sieging Tarna and been in a airship battle with slavers. After that, we had encountered the tarrasque and the thri-kreen. And I survived all that!

Of course, there had been a lot inbetween it, like the assassins some of the council in the Talri Clan had sent after me. Not to mention me getting my katra aspect and everything else it wreaked havoc on.

Now, I am underground, being hunted by a umber hulk. Exploring underground tunnels. It's like we are in a dungeon!

Gods! If I looked at myself before this all happened, I’m pretty sure I would barely recognize myself. I can’t help but remembering that pale, veiny complexion I had seen in the mirror. I’d tied my hair up with a strip of leather, and currently I had the head wrap around my face, the goggle hanging around my neck.

I look down at the burnt sleeve of my right hand, and the black cloth that has risen above my elbow. I still don’t even fully understand this thing or my powers.

I want to try and summon Vel, but if the message I got was any indication, it will take quite a large amount of katra to both summon her and keep her active in the real world.

Pursing my lips, something starts bothering me. I summoned Vengeance, didn’t I?

Sure, it wasn’t the whole way, but I had summoned him. And it had cost katra to bring him into the real world, but after that, I didn’t have to supply him with any. From what I can gather, he was converting the corpse’s blood and katra to help keep himself here.

There was also the fact of the chimeras. I still don’t know how they came to be, but I am pretty sure that they are at least partially of my creation. And they hadn’t cost any katra at all. Or, none that I know of.

I would think I’d notice my own katra being drained to help keep them in the real world, and I didn’t have nearly the capacity I do now. But the iron rod costed katra to both create, and keep here.

It’s interesting. So, why does it drain katra when I summon the iron bar, but not when I summon Vengeance?

I think, trying to figure out why. Could it be that living creatures don’t need to be constantly supplied with katra?

No, the message was clear that they also needed a steady stream of katra.

I remember what the Controller had done to make it’s minions. And they all dropped melded together cores…

It hits me, a flash of understanding. The cores let them stay in the real world!

Vengeance had possessed a body with a core inside it, and had also converted its blood to spend more time in the real world.

From the emptiness of the forests of the Valley of Ivory, I can only assume that the fauna was all consumed by the controler to make itself stronger. And it melded together the cores from the beasts it killed to help sustain itself and its minions!

The controller had also had a insatiable hunger for katra, to get stronger and probably keep itself in the world. It could have been draining my katra till it killed something, then it would have switched over to the consumption of other types of katra.

This revelation scares me. So, if I could implement cores into my creations and teach them how to cycle and absorb vital aura, they might be able to stay in the real world indefinitely or for an extended period of time.

It's a exhilarating and scary thought. I feel giddy from the idea of implementing it. Though, the katra burn would have to be pretty steep, and it would probably require quite a bit for more complex creatures.

Vengeance did have access to a good source of blood to convert, but he had still only managed to stay in the real world for a few minutes. So, I can probably extend the time I can keep a living being in the real world by giving them a core, but not keep them out indefinitely.

The chain of thoughts continues. If my creations had convert things into katra they can use, what is stopping me from doing the same?

I remember that rock I tripped over in the forest while I was escaping Tarna. I pumped it full of Gray katra and it converted all of the vital aura in the rock to Gray katra.

The rock had turned to dust when I had done that, and I can’t remember exactly, but there might have been an incremental increase in katra. Though, I can’t remember.

The rock turning into dust reminds me of what happened on the surface of my planet. Where I had converted the surrounding flora and fauna into GRay katra for me to use. Could I do something similar in the real world?

I want to try it out now, but know that I shouldn’t. I need to focus on the current task at hand. Waiting out the sandstorm and making sure the umber hulk doesn’t find us.

But if I can somehow convert the surrounding vital aura and katra into Gray katra for me to use, I think I might be able to temporarily boost my katra capacity. Kind of like with the bone armor and how I kept getting Gray Life katra everytime I absorbed a chimera.

It had ended shortly after I absorbed the Controller, but most of it had just been sucked up into my gauntlet. So, now that it has completed its ‘Bonding’ with me, would I have more access to the katra I convert?

The biggest problem I can think of with what I am thinking is that it would probably have little to no effect on living beings. It is a well known fact that someone’s own katra will purge them of foreign katra, negating any ill effects that katra could have on the body and keeping the person’s aspect pure. The person would also probably resist against the effects of the foreign katra, helping ot purge it from their system.

Though, it might work on inanimate objects like rocks and water. I don’t know if it could convert air aura into Gray katra, but it doesn’t strike me as smart to change all the air you breathe into something you can’t. Though, if I can do it, I might be able to literally suck the air out of someone’s lungs and suffocate them.

I know from experience with my cycling technique it is incredibly hard to do anything when you can’t breathe and are suffocating. It would be extremely hard to fight without oxygen to breath and transport to your muscles for renew them.

It takes me a second to think about what I just thought. How do I know that?

The knowledge disturbs me, but it is similar to how I understood about cells and DNA.

Strange.

I can’t believe that I hadn't noticed it really till now. Is something trying to subvert my mind? Could it be ‘Mother’?

I shake my head. It was possible, and I don't know if my Immutable Will would cover that area. Does slowly subverting a person's mind count as an mental attack? I think it would, because it is a hostile invasion on the mind.

I suppress a sigh. Just more things to worry about.

My attention is drawn back to Kamar and the tunnel. We walk around a bend, and the tunnel suddenly stops.

Kamar approaches slowly, holding the glowing jar out in front of him.

The light reaches a few feet out of the tunnel, illuminating eroded sandstone bricks. The mouth of the tunnel is lined with broken bricks, as if something dug its way out through the wall.

A pile of broken and pulverized bricks lays at the foot of the tunnel.

Kamar and I peer out of the tunnel. From the stale draft, and the lack of any seeable walls, I can only assume that we are in some type of chamber.

Deciding it is worth it, I focus on the idea of being able to see through this impenetrable blackness. Adapt.

A pressure and sharp pain blooms in my eyes, and I blink tears from them. Wiping my eyes, I peer out once again into the chamber.

My eyes go wide at what I see stretching out before me.

I mutter out loud, having to voice my thoughts, “We really are in a dungeon, aren't we?”