Chapter 18: The Key of Silence and the Flesh Golem (Part 1)
Location: The Solaris House Locker Room (The Arena).
Time: 1:00 PM (Immediately after the Duel).
Caelum sat on the bench, his hands trembling. The adrenaline was fading, leaving behind a cold, hollow feeling in his gut.
The door clicked shut. Ren stood there, leaning against it.
"You won," Ren said quietly.
"I didn't win," Caelum looked up. His eyes were red-rimmed. "His wand failed. He was sluggish. And I... I almost took his head off, Ren. I wanted to do it. For a second, it felt good."
Caelum looked at his hands as if they were covered in blood.
"That voice I heard... 'A butcher shows fear.' That was you, wasn't it?"
Ren walked over and sat next to him.
"The Academy is a farm, Caelum. The Eye of Envy feeds on your desire to be better than others. It pushes you to hate. It pushes you to kill."
Ren tapped his own chest.
"I cheated to save you. Not from Draven. From becoming a monster."
Caelum was silent for a long time. Then he exhaled, the tension leaving his shoulders.
"So, we're cheating against the House itself now?"
"We're breaking the House," Ren corrected. "Tonight, I'm going back to the basement. I'm going to find the source of the infection. And I need the Key."
"What Key?"
"The elevator override key. It hangs around the neck of the scariest woman in the Academy."
Location: The Great Library, Main Desk.
Time: 9:00 PM.
Archivist Grey was stamping return slips. Her stamp hit the parchment with the rhythmic violence of a judge sentencing criminals. THUD. THUD. THUD.
Ren stood nearby, sorting a cart of books. He watched her.
The key was a heavy iron jagged thing on a silver chain. It rested against her sternum, rising and falling with her breath.
She was Level 45. A Word-Mage. If he tried to grab it, she would speak a single Word—probably "Freeze" or "Die"—and it would be over.
He needed to be invisible.
Ren closed his eyes. [The Index].
[ Source: 'The Pickpocket's Gospel' (Confiscated from a thief) ]
[ Borrowed Skill: Ghost Hand (Rank D) ]
[ Effect: Increases dexterity by 50%. Hand movements become blurred to the naked eye. ]
Ren took a deep breath.
"Archivist Grey?" Ren asked, holding up a book.
Grey sighed, not looking up. "What is it, Arken? Found another forbidden tome?"
"No, Ma'am. I found a... stain. On 'The History of the Royal Lineage'."
Grey stopped stamping. She looked up sharply. Damaging a Royal Book was a crime.
"Show me."
Ren placed the book on her desk. He opened it to page 40.
Earlier, he had spilled a tiny drop of [Sweat of the Sloth] on the page. It looked like an oil stain, and as it evaporated, it released a faint, sleepy vapor.
Grey leaned in close to inspect the damage.
"This looks like... grease?" She frowned, sniffing it.
As she inhaled, her eyelids fluttered. Just for a second. A micro-sleep.
Ren moved.
[ Ghost Hand. ]
His hand blurred. He reached across the desk. His fingers brushed her collar. He unclasped the silver chain. He caught the key before it clinked against her buttons. He pulled his hand back.
The entire motion took 0.3 seconds.
Grey shook her head, snapping awake. "Disgusting. Take this to the restoration department immediately."
"Yes, Ma'am," Ren said, bowing.
He turned around. The heavy iron key was warm in his palm.
Location: The Elevator Shaft, Basement Level 3.
Time: 10:00 PM.
The elevator doors slid open. Ren stepped inside. Kaelith and Bastion were waiting for him, squeezed into the back corner of the brass cage.
"You actually got it," Kaelith whispered, eyeing the key.
Ren inserted the key into a hidden slot behind the control panel. He turned it.
A new button lit up. [ B-4 ].
Ren pressed it.
The elevator shuddered. It didn't go up. It dropped. fast.
"We are entering the belly of the beast," Bastion rumbled, his stone fists grinding together.
The doors opened.
They weren't looking at a hallway. They were looking at a factory floor.
The lab Ren had seen before was just the observation deck. This was the main processing plant.
Hundreds of glass tubes lined the walls. But they weren't just holding students. They were holding Monsters.
Goblins, Orcs, and even a juvenile Wyvern were suspended in green fluid. Cables ran from their tanks into the floor, feeding a massive, pulsating crystal column in the center of the room.
[ Object: The Pillar of Scales ]
[ Function: Mana Harvester / Dimensional Anchor. ]
"By the Earth..." Bastion whispered. "They are milking them."
"Not just milking," Ren pointed to a conveyor belt.
Bodies—husks of monsters that had been drained dry—were being dumped into a grinder. The resulting paste was being fed into a vat.
And rising from that vat was a creature.
It stood eight feet tall. It was a patchwork nightmare. It had the arm of an Ogre, the head of a Wolf, and the torso of a human student (a failed senior). It was stitched together with glowing green thread.
[ Monster: Envy Homunculus (Prototype) ]
[ Level: 22 ]
[ Type: Construct / Undead ]
[ Ability: Shape Mimicry. ]
"Intruders..." the Homunculus gurgled. It didn't have one voice; it had three overlapping voices. "Must... be... recycled."
"Level 22," Ren noted. "Bastion, you take the front. Kaelith, eyes. I'll take the legs."
"On it," Bastion charged.
The Golem roared, his stone skin glowing. He slammed into the Homunculus like a freight train.
BOOM.
The Homunculus didn't budge. It caught Bastion's fist with its Ogre hand.
"Weak..." the monster hissed.
Its other arm—the Wolf arm—elongated like rubber, snapping forward to bite Bastion's rocky shoulder.
CRUNCH.
It bit through stone.
"It has Acid Teeth!" Bastion shouted, trying to shake it off.
Kaelith fired three arrows. They hit the monster's chest but sank into the flesh without exploding.
"It absorbs kinetic energy!" Kaelith yelled.
"It's a sponge," Ren realized. "It's made to absorb punishment."
Ren drew his Shiv.
"Grim! I need a counter."
[ The Index Activated. ]
[ Analyzing Enemy Composition... ]
[ Components: Flesh, Mana, Alchemy Reagents. ]
[ Suggested Counter: Disrupt the Binding Agent. ]
"The green thread," Ren realized. "It's Alchemical bindings."
Ren reached into his pouch. He pulled out a vial of Bear Bile (High Acidity/Solvent).
"Bastion! Hold him still!"
Bastion bear-hugged the monster, ignoring the acid eating his chest. "Hurry!"
Ren sprinted. [Flash Step].
He slid underneath the grappling monsters. He splashed the Bear Bile onto the stitching at the Homunculus's waist.
HISSSS.
The bile reacted with the green thread. The stitching dissolved.
The Homunculus shrieked as its legs literally fell off.
"AAAAHHH!"
It collapsed, its upper body thrashing on the floor.
"Finish it!" Ren shouted.
Kaelith switched to a Holy Arrow (stolen from Solaris supplies).
THWIP.
The arrow struck the monster's exposed core.
FLASH.
The Homunculus exploded into a pile of mismatched limbs.
[ XP Gained: 1,500 ]
[ Level Up! ]
[ You are now Level 20. ]
Ren stood amidst the gore.
"Level 20," Ren panted.
Suddenly, the System chimed. A sound deeper than usual.
[ Milestone Reached: Level 20. ]
[ Class Evolution Tier 2 Available. ]
[ Feature Unlocked: The Mental Workshop. ]
Ren waved the notification away. "Not now."
He walked to the Pillar of Scales.
Through the glass of the pillar, he could see something swirling. It looked like a window.
On the other side of the window was a landscape. A sky of bruised purple. Mountains made of green glass. And a giant, unblinking Eye floating in the clouds.
"The Continent of Envy," Ren whispered.
"We found it," Kaelith stared in horror. "It's real."
Ren looked at the console controlling the pillar.
"We can't destroy the pillar," Ren said. "If we do, the backlash will blow up the Academy."
He typed a command into the console.
[ Command: Reroute Power. ]
[ Target: Venting. ]
"But we can starve it."
Ren pulled a lever.
The green light in the pillar dimmed. The portal window clouded over. The mana that was being siphoned to the Hidden Continent was now being vented harmlessly into the atmosphere.
"This will buy us time," Ren said. "Malthus will notice the drop in power, but he'll think it's a leak."
"Ren!" Kaelith called out.
She was standing by a row of tanks in the back.
"This one... he's alive."
Ren ran over.
Inside Tank 04 was a boy. He was emaciated, hooked up to tubes.
It was Tom, the footman from the Arken Estate. The one Vargo had almost executed. He must have been kidnapped after Ren left.
"They took him," Ren realized. "Because he worked for me. To get to me."
Ren smashed the glass with his Gauntlet.
Fluid spilled out. Tom fell into Ren's arms. He was breathing shallowly.
"We're taking him," Ren said. "Bastion, carry him."
"Where?" Bastion asked, lifting the boy easily. "If we take him to the infirmary, they'll just put him back."
Ren looked at the dark corners of the lab.
"We take him to Umbra House. We hide him in the crypts. Vex can stabilize him."
Ren looked at the Pillar one last time.
"We just declared war on the Church, the Academy, and a Sin."
Ren smiled, his eyes glowing.
"Let's see who blinks first."
End of Chapter 18 - Part 1
Summary:
The Locker Room: Caelum admits his guilt over the rigged duel. Ren validates their path of "necessary evil."
The Heist: Ren uses Ghost Hand (Index Skill) and a sleep-toxin distraction to steal the Elevator Key from Archivist Grey.
The Descent: Team Umbra enters Basement 4. They find a factory processing monsters and failed students into mana paste.
The Fight: They defeat an Envy Homunculus (Level 22) by dissolving its alchemical stitching.
Level Up: Ren hits Level 20 (Tier 2 Evolution unlocked).
The Sabotage: Ren vents the mana, temporarily starving the portal to the Continent of Envy.
The Rescue: They find Tom (Ren's former ally from the estate) in a tank and rescue him.