“Where do they come from though?” Sam asked as they examined another chamber. There were more monster corpses here. Only a couple of dead humans, this one a lot more recent than the others they had observed before. The smell here was strong, but Sam had grown familiar with it, and Quentin had given him something to smear on both sides of his nose to offset the stench. He poked at the skull of a wolf-like monster. Its rotten leathery skin slid off its bone with a wet squelching sound, giving off more of the pungent odor. The space was covered in blood. The walls were covered with scratch marks and blackened spots. Sam peered at them.

  “I don’t know,” Quentin said, his rifle slung over his shoulder. One of the orbs above him had dimmed significantly, but he didn’t seem worried. Sam assumed he had more. Sam picked up what looked like a staff beside the remains of one of the fallen humans. Long winding symbols were hewn into the shaft, webbing around it like enlarged cursives. A star-edged dip was at the top of the staff, as though something was originally fixed into it. He stared at the markings, fascinated by the smooth flow of artistry. They were nothing like what he’d seen before. They connected, forming complex patterns that seemed to weave together beautifully. But it felt ordinary, like any wood he had seen before. He showed it to Quentin as they left the chamber.

  “Probably a mage’s staff,” Quentin muttered, confirming Sam’s suspicion. “Not many people do it or get the skill anymore. But I have heard there were many of them before. Those whose magic ability works more with channels than normal, direct spells. Like folks who cast spells with runes.”

  Sam glanced back, hoping to get a peep of Vale and his team. He wondered how far back they were. The essence density was higher the farther in they walked, but it felt like a minor chill. Yet, it gave Sam the impression that they were really close. He wasn’t eager to see what breed of monsters lurked in any of the chambers ahead, but he was enthusiastic about achieving his first domain. He needed the skills it offered.

  “What domain are you going to pick?” Sam asked. The question was out of his mouth before he could reel the thought back in. Quentin scoffed, his rifle’s strap slung over his shoulder so he could walk properly.

  Sam had learned it was rude to ask that, so he knew Quentin wouldn’t respond. Instead, he focused on himself. Wexi had told him to hold off on picking a quadrant until he got back to the Forge, but Sam wondered why. The option was clear. He needed the strength and skill to survive, and the martial domain would give him the skills he needed. He could see why Wexi would pick something like technology, but his own path branched away from hers.

  “Profession,” Quentin said, before bringing his rifle up. “Because I want to be so rich that I won’t need to come to a place like this ever again.” He gestured at the wall in front of the passage, blocking their path. Sam frowned. He’d thought the passages connected to other chambers. If this was a dead end, then there had to have been another path. They would have to go as far back as the last intersection. That didn’t—

  His thoughts came to a halt, a system message opening in front of him clarified what was happening.

  [Legacy function initiated…]

  [Legacy advancement system—quest type]

  [You have reached Elyr’s eighth hidden chamber]

  Quest type—Eradication!

  Eliminate Elyr’s mutated spawns. (0/10)

  Quest condition—mutated spawn’s strength and ability potency doubles every hour after confrontation.

  Sam stared at the message, a different weight settling on his chest. He looked at Quentin who stared at him, confusion obvious on his face. Sam walked forward, feeling the ominous thread of essence on the other side of the wall. He wondered if he should warn Quentin of what was on the other side but decided against it. That would only lead to more questions, and he wasn’t sure he had any answers for the questions Quentin would ask. But there was something else he wasn’t sure about, so he waited.

  “I think we should go back,” Quentin said, looking annoyed. “I didn’t see any other path as we walked down, that means we should have taken the left passage back there in that two-way intersection.” Sam nodded, confirming the message had only come to him. He moved closer to the wall, the stone smoother than the walls on either side of the passage. He’d noticed how much more refined it was the farther down they walked.

  “Quentin,” Sam called, gesturing for the man to bring the lights closer. He searched the wall, looking for some kind of secret lever. But there was nothing. He placed his palm on it, rubbing around, putting a bit of pressure now and then to see if any part of the surface would give. He was about to give up when he felt something vibrate. He stepped back, almost shuffling into Quentin.

  “What did you do?” Quentin accused, but Sam wasn’t listening. The stone groaned and the ground shook slightly, vibrating under him. Then the wall blocking them slid down into an opening Sam hadn’t noticed before. They stood stunned, staring at the opening that showed nothing until Quentin’s light floated forward, spacing out to cover more ground. There was nothing inside. The chamber was a large square with four large pillars. There were obvious signs of maintenance in this chamber. The walls were smooth on all four sides, except for the murals on them.

  Under Quentin’s light, they looked like harsh burn marks expertly made into the snarling faces of monsters. Sam coughed, feeling the thick sheet of essence settled on him. From above, something shimmered to life. Sam’s grip on his spear tightened as the flickering light stabilized into a large sphere of void black. Quentin’s rune lights shifted up, but whatever light they gave off seemed to sink into the void.

  “What is that?” Quentin asked, but Sam didn’t have to answer. It was already forming. The murals on the wall shone as essence filtered out of that void space. It reminded Sam of the very thing he walked into back on Earth, and now that he could sense essence, the overwhelming volume of essence flowing out of it shocked him.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  “That’s… impossible,” Quentin said, stepping away from the wall as burning yellow eyes animated and essence spread through the murals. The monster's head stretched out, black splattering on the floor as if they were made of drooling black paint. But as the black touched the stone, it hissed, an acrid smell filling the chamber. “This… Sam, this is wrong! This wasn’t... what in the Dark Sea is this?”

  It snarled as its front limb stretched to the floor, yellow eyes staring, burning with coal-red edges. It moved lazily, as if in no hurry. Sam turned to see another form from the west wall, this one larger than the first, its body covered in dark green spikes. It stood on crooked legs, face wild with old sores. It had once been something else, Sam realized, but it had become so warped now. So monstrous.

  “Shoot!” Sam screamed just as he charged for the monster on his side. He heard the crack of Quentin’s rifle but only briefly. He slid left, away from the dripping black spray of death that oozed from the monster’s swing. He had to close in, that meant speed. Sam rushed forward while watching for those swings he knew would come when he was close enough. He twisted, twirling on his right foot, roughly escaping another swing. With the momentum of his swing, he slammed the spear into the side of the monster, felt its toughness, and leaped back a bit. The beast turned to him, a growl vibrating out of it from the depth of whatever black pit was within it. Sam didn’t care about any of that.

  He attacked again, the spearhead stabbing as he weaved out of the way, dodging swings from the snarling beast. Every movement was rough and random, honed out of desperation instead of skill. His direction was all over the place. He crouched under a swing and fell forward, but rolled onto his knees and thrust the spear forward. It punched through the monster’s skin, which pulled a dying scream from its snarling snout. Sam pushed harder until the spear tore out the other side. He stood up and forced the monster back until its twitching body fell still. He pulled the spear out and turned to see Quentin backing away from the corpse of the other monster.

  “Not bad—” his words hung in his mouth when he saw another monster’s head push out of the wall, its mural shimmering with golden light. Its long, skull-like head hissed, the thin skin taught over bone. Its eyes were sunken, but from it, Sam saw no light, no sign of life. Only the oppressive flow of essence pushed against them. Once fully formed, it faded from the murals, leaving a space in the line of other monsters.

  [Achievement log]

  --You have slain Elyr’s spawns (1/10)

  , Sam thought. That meant this chamber was supposed to be a low-rank task. That was the only explanation he could come up with as he watched another mural glisten, coming to life as a new monster formed. Its large head split open, showing rows of small, jagged teeth. It croaked, shoving its large reptilian body forward. Its scales were a problem as Sam’s thrusts repeatedly glanced off its body.

  “Switch!” Sam called, pulling Quentin away as the thin monster’s claw tried to rake his face. Quentin fired shots after shots at the beast, and Sam tore the other one apart with quick slams with the shaft of his spear.

  [Achievement log]

  --You have slain Elyr’s spawns (2/10)

  “Don’t do that again!” Quentin screamed, marching up to Sam. Sam nodded, realizing that abrupt maneuver could have gotten them killed. “That was… smart,” Quentin said, nodding to the monster’s remains behind Sam. “But also dangerous.”

  “Yeah, I agree,” Sam said, turning to the east wall to see the new monster forming from the mural. “I guess we have to fight them one after the other. Not so bad. You feel your EoM count rising?”

  “No,” Quentin said. “These monsters have good durability, but they are ultimately low-rank monsters. We’ll need to stack achievements to gain even the smallest EoM boost.”

  Sam agreed. Then he drove forward, driving his spear into the half-formed head of a furry beast. Its eyes bulged in shock and its head shattered, exploding like a thick burble. Pieces of the monster hung from the wall, but most of the mural faded, leaving behind a bare, black stone.

  “We can kill them before they fully form!” Sam said, staring at the new achievement log message that popped up when he killed the monster. He turned just in time to see a stream of fire out of Quentin’s gun blazing a monster, burning its face down to its hairy torso. The smell of burnt magic flesh filled the chamber. Sam raised a brow to Quentin, then nodded to his gun.

  “Not a specialized weapon,” Quentin said quickly, looking toward the doorway they’d come through. Sam shrugged, turning to see the next monster forming. Killing them got easier from then on, but Quentin missed a sprinting monster that Sam had to kill because he was faster. The smell grew as the monsters died. One of them exploded when Quentin tore it with essence charges with fire properties. At the end of it, they sat against the left wall, the murals all gone. Sam stared at the achievement log. He’d killed fifteen monsters which were above the requirement, but he didn’t mind.

  [Achievement log]

  --You have slain Elyr’s spawns (15/10)

  [Legacy reward system adjusting…]

  --+2 EoM

  --+2 STR, +1 WIS, +1 PER

  Sam had a feeling those extra stat boosts had something to do with the legacy function. He made a note to ask Wexi about it. He would have to be subtle, but he was sure she would have answers. She was one of the smartest people he’d met in this life and the one before. But even if she didn’t, he’d figure it out with time. He leaned back, wishing he had come with water or food. He felt less tired after resting, but he was still only human.

  “Makes me wish I had one of those skills that lets you carry so many things in small pockets,” Quentin muttered, obviously exhausted. That perked Sam’s interest. He looked at the other man, his gaze questioning. Quentin smiled. “You don’t know? Your friend Wexi has it. It is a common skill. My father has it too. You get it by default with your second domain. They call it a pocket world, although I have heard it is not exactly that vast. Especially if you are still just an initiate.”

  Sam nodded as though he understood any of what Quentin had said. He was working up a hill of questions to ask Wexi. And he knew the woman loved curiosity, unlike some of the Scavengers who feared it. Sam pulled himself up, testing his feet. The essence in the chamber was still heavy but once the murals on the wall were all gone, the void above faded too. Sam had wondered what kind of technique that had been, but more than that, he was in awe at how the Elyr person had been able to store essence in that void and configured it to fuel the mural. It was fascinating. He could already imagine how delighted Wexi would be when he told her what had happened. Unless this was how every controlled hunt had been.

  “You heard something like this before?” Sam asked, gesturing to the wall, now emptied of monster murals. Quentin shook his head. “How often do people go on hunts like this?”

  “Supervised hunts? Often. Not many people use the city’s forces though. There are hunters in the Forge. Most of them sell their services to do what Vale and his squad are doing for us. But I have never heard of hunts where monsters form from murals.” He grinned. “My siblings wouldn’t believe the stories I have for them.”

  Sam pulled him up. He’d thought Quentin was a douchebag, but he was beginning to rethink his initial conclusion. Of course, they had just started the hunt in earnest, but he could see that the man wasn’t all bad.

  “That is if we survive,” Sam said, facing the part of the chamber’s wall that had slid open when they ended the mural hunt. He wasn’t sure what lurked in the darkness beyond, but he hoped it was as easy as the one they just finished.