“There’s more meat on a person than most people realize... ‘Repulsive.’ That’s what they say about me. But who’s the one that must carve up the corpses and stuff them in the overflowing mouths in the earth? Not them!”

private ramblings of Gravekeeper Boucher

Skull bone squealed like peeling metal as I twisted my axe and yanked it free. The Rotting Corpse coughed and heaved something like intestines from its terrible mouth, spraying dark blood out of the tattered holes in what was left of its cheeks—then died. Quintessence swirled around me as more of the things fell around me as my companions fought.

Jacob fired a Mortal Arrow as Altarus’ Winchester cracked loudly and another one of the monsters went down. I stepped forward and pivoted, crosscutting two corpses as they swung at me.

82—89

My blade chattered across their weak bones, tearing chunks into the air, as Fujiko brought her hammer down with a cry. A shockwave rippled out as she used the Shatter talent, sending one of the once-men to the ground in a heap. I chopped him like I was chopping wood, and as he died, my Rally bar came to life.

“Let’s go!” I shouted, slashing down his low-health companion. I’d started to get their timing down, and Shadowstepped in anticipation of an incoming attack. And I was right. A hand clawed the air where I had stood, three fingers snatching for anything it could find. As I spun, Fujiko bashed it in the back, sending it tumbling towards me. I caught it in the jaw with an upward stroke that cleaved his head in two vertically.

MASSIVE!

298

“Nice!” she cried out, throwing both of her legs into the air as she leapt in, hammer raised with tow hands above her head. Her strike couldn’t have been aimed more perfectly, and mashed the Rotted Corpse into an unrecognizable pile of vile muck. Somehow, the thing raised its hand in a pathetic last attempt of hostility, but my axe finished it off.

112

More Quintessence swirled up my body, but I was more concerned with Victoria’s task. Shiny loot indicators gleamed at my feet and I knelt down to retrieve three vials of Soothing Syrup, and two more Old Bones to add to the two I’d already found.

Six more to go, I thought. The drop rate wasn’t bad, and I was approaching level 7 pretty quickly. I heard Jacob cry out behind me.

“Level 5, baby!” he announced and I turned to see him holding his Bone of the Great one above his head like a little kid. “I’ve got an Intuition point!”

“Grats,” I told him with a grin as another Rotting Corpse swung at me. I ducked easily and lashed back out with two strikes to the chest.

83—91

It raised up to swing, but a Blunted Strike caught it right in the jaw and froze it in place for two seconds—longer than Fujiko and I needed to finish it off.

“This is easy,” Fujiko joked. I’d saved her butt a couple of minutes ago when three of the gruesome creatures had ganged up on her and caught her off guard. She was skilled, no doubt but I was carrying the group.

“Worn Woolen Trousers,” she muttered as she looted something.

“New armor?”

“Yeah, armor,” she chuckled, swapping the pants she was wearing for the one’s she’d just picked up. “Little higher protection.”

“Famous last words,” I smiled as the Quintessence whirled around me. I opened my character sheet and saw only a sliver remained before I was level 8. All I could think about was level 10, another Intuition point, and growing my character into something so badass I’d be unstoppable on my quest to find Rey—to find the monolith.

The vision still had me off balance slightly, as I felt like an outsider among the rest of my group. Why had none of them seen it?

Focus! I told myself as I swung my blade to rid it of a thick line of jelly-like offal that hit the stony ground like a fat slug. I glanced around the putrid, pregnant earth as I tasted the taint of death against my tongue, and saw a gleam of an item drop that I’d missed. I stepped over and reached down to find nothing but junk loot.

“Ooooh, might have found some too—” I said, then shut my mouth when I saw what it was.

Tattered Rags—Faded and torn, these rags provide little protection for the wearer. Perhaps they were once great—perhaps.

Armor Level: 12

“Anything good?” Fujiko asked.

“Junk,” I scowled. I kept the rags anyway, as they might sell for a bit of Quint once we got back to town.

“Man, I have to get a tome,” Jacob whined behind me. “A tome to learn a new spell. This just isn’t fair. You guys can just train yours!”

“You know, Jacob…you’ve changed,” I grinned back at him. He glared back at me as he knew exactly what I mean. The cocky, bordering on arrogant Jacob that I’d first encountered with Rey back at the Weeping Hills lamppost seemed to have taken a vacation and had been replaced by his younger brother that kept complaining about how the world wasn’t fair.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “I’ll just head back to town and buy my new spell then.”

“No you won’t,” I replied. “You’ll stay right here and collect bones with us. You’re the lowest level right now and we need you to get some Quint.”

“We don’t even know if that chick will give us any for this quest!”

“What quest have you ever seen that doesn’t give you some kind of experience along with it?” I asked him. “Don’t go crazy on me now.”

Jacob just frowned and scratched his temple angrily before turning and aiming his casting bone at another one of the rambling skeletons and blasting it with a Mortal Arrow. Altarus took aim, using his Precision Shot skill that took slightly longer to aim but did 175% weapon damage. About a quarter of the thing’s health vanished and as it began lumbering towards them, Altarus began firing more rapidly. By the time it reached them it was almost dead.

“Sniper wimps,” Fujiko chuckled from beside me. I flashed her a grin and turned around to face whatever it was I’d heard moving behind me. I’d expected another Rotting Corpse, but instead, I came face to face with a set of teeth aimed straight at my face.

“Look out, Rand!” I heard Jacob scream. I tried to Shadowstep, but it was still on cooldown, and there was no time to riposte or block. The massive jaws enveloped my entire head, plunging me into filth and fetid darkness. The stench—the stench was unbearable as mucus and saliva soaked my hair and skin as the thing’s teeth embedded themselves in my neck. My blood poured, mixing with the drippings from the beast’s mouth and throat, and I swung wildly as my health sank.

-115

“Rand!” It was Fujiko’s voice, muffled by the skull of the thing latched onto me. I heard, and felt, her hammer bludgeon the Corpse Eater somewhere, but the horrid thing held tight, squeezed harder, eating more of my health away.

A Frenzy meter appeared and began filling quickly.

­-80

Shit!

I had 167 remaining. If this thing didn’t let go of me soon, I was done for. My swings were futile and useless, but I waved my axe anyway, searching for the beast’s flesh. My blade found something and sank in. I heard Fujiko cry out.

“Watch it!”

I tried to scream out an apology, but my jaw was mashed shut by the unrelenting pressure of the Corpse Eater’s bite. Pain flared. My knees buckled as a downward force bore down on me, seemingly intent on driving me into the ground. The thing’s jaws shook and expanded, and I realized it had fallen, or likely been knocked off its feet by someone in my group.

I tore myself free of its jaws, felt the monstrous teeth slip from my neck. I tumbled back and tried to get to my feet, but I was dripping with spit—sick from the Corpse Eater’s throat, and stumbled and fell back. My Blunderbuss roared as my finger accidentally pulled the trigger. The creature bellowed as Altarus’ Winchester cracked and a Mortal Arrow found its mark. I glanced up as Fujiko’s massive hammer beat through the air before slamming into the half-man half-dog’s skull with a satisfying crack. It whined and collapsed into a heap then disappeared.

“Shit!” I stammered, whipping my arms in an attempt to rid myself of the slime that clung to my body, its stench seemingly intent on invading my being.

“Are you all right?” Fujiko asked, kneeling down at my side as the Corpse Eater’s Quintessence whirled and spun. I was of course, and she could see that of course, but I still shook my head as I quickly slurped down two Soothing Syrups, my eye on the Frenzy meter which was just a little too close to being full.

“Sorry about that swing,” I told her as I rubbed my arms against the stone, semi-succeeding in ridding myself of some of the filth that still hung from me.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied. “If you were a little tougher and did some actual damage, I might be a little pissed.”

“Oh, yah?” I laughed as she gave me a hand and helped me to my feet. “Well gimmie a hug!”

She squealed as I lunged forward, both of my soggy arms aimed straight at her. She tucked and rolled away from the dripping reek of mucilage that still clung to me, and after hopping nimbly over a few tall gravestones, I backed off.

“Dick!” she laughed.

“Don’t worry,” I replied. “I wouldn’t do that to you. I’m not that mean.”

Altarus stood up from where he’d been looting the Corpse Eater. “Four Old Bones! Only need two more!” he said happily.

“Uh, guys?” Jacob said from behind us. But I didn’t even have to turn—I knew what he was looking at.

Ahead of us, beyond the rise of a hill particularly clustered with headstones that sprung from the ground like stony whiskers, was a monstrous man, at least eight feet tall, his muscles engorged like they were ready to burst. His skin was pale green, like he’d started to go rotten from the inside out, and he wore a pair of pants so tattered and frayed that they’d turned into shorts that hung just above the knee. His top half was almost completely concealed by a piece of dark purple fabric that draped across him like a cloak, and in his two gigantic hands, he clutched the largest axe I’d ever seen. It seemed to have been a shovel at one time, but an entire half of it had been shaved down into a semi-serration, and the handle shined with a burnish that spoke of years of use under the monster’s giang hands.

“So much meat…” his voice chattered through the thick air like drill bits scoring holes in a tree. “And what to do with it all?”

Gravekeeper Boucher—Level 10.

“So much meat…” he continued, apparently oblivious to our presence as he sank the makeshift blade of his weapon into the decaying body of a Corpse Eater. Congealed, old blood spat everywhere as he began to hack the thing to pieces. “Meat, meat, meat. But you are not bound for the graves. No, no, no…”

“Level 10!?” Fujiko whispered as he lumbered through the graves in a path that would eventually lead him to us. “Do you think we can take him?”

But before the words were barely out of her mouth, old Boucher turned his thick head and his eyes, which seemed to sparkle with an inner light, found us. I’d expected a horrible roar, or scream or some kind of fierce battle cry. But instead, the massive man simply cocked his head to the side as though he’d just spotted some curious enigma.

“’Ello there,” he spoke, a hint of lethality beneath his amiable, almost gentlemanly tone. “’Ave you brought more meat for me!?”