Thalos sat on the cold metal floor, his back pressed against a stack of rusted crates.
Ten minutes had passed since he ate the Bio-Metallic Gland. The burning pain in his veins had finally faded, but it was replaced by a strange, heavy sensation that he could not shake. It felt as if his bones had been filled with lead.
He lifted his right arm into the dim red light of the emergency strobes.
His skin did not look like skin anymore.
Patches of his forearm were covered in a matte-grey substance that looked like organic ceramic. It wasn't just a layer sitting on top of him; it was growing out of him. Where the grey plates met his normal pale flesh, the skin was red and irritated, as if his body was still trying to reject the foreign material.
He flexed his fingers. The movement was stiff. His knuckles clicked with a sound like two stones hitting together.
[Status Update]
• Defense: 12 (+3)
• Agility: 11 (-1)
• Weight: 85kg (+10kg)
He was heavier. The [Dermal Plating] added significant density to his body structure. He realized with a jolt of anxiety that this would change how he moved. If he tried to run across a rotting suspension bridge in the Slums now, his new weight might snap the cables.
"Everything has a price," Thalos muttered, his voice sounding raspy in the silent lab.
He forced himself to stand up. His boots clanked loudly against the metal floor, the sound echoing through the vast chamber.
He turned his attention to the center of the room.
The blast door he had entered through was still sealed tight. Vex was likely long gone, or perhaps waiting patiently on the other side. Either way, Thalos could not go back. The only way forward was the ventilation shaft he had spotted high on the far wall.
But before he left, he needed answers. He needed to know what this place was.
He walked over to the main console. It was a massive, horseshoe-shaped desk covered in decades of dust, scattered papers, and old coffee mugs that had long since dried out.
In the center chair, a skeleton in a tattered white lab coat sat slumped over the keyboard.
[Target: Dr. Aris (Chief Geneticist)]
[Status: Deceased (Time of Death: ~200 Years)]
Thalos looked at the bones. There were no signs of violence. No broken ribs, no bullet holes. The doctor had simply sat down here, locked the doors, and waited for the end.
"Sorry," Thalos whispered.
He gently pushed the skeleton aside. The bones rattled dryly and slid to the floor in a heap of dust and cloth.
He plugged his [Corroded ID Chip] into the terminal's data port.
Hummmm.
The machine groaned to life. The screen flickered, displaying lines of corrupted code that scrolled past too fast to read. Green text reflected in Thalos's predatory eyes.
[System Rebooting...]
[Access Granted.]
[User: Administrator.]
[Last Log Entry: Day 4,092 of the Siege.]
Thalos leaned in closer. He was not a hacker, but the system seemed to recognize the ID chip as a "Master Key," bypassing all the passwords. He saw a blinking audio file labeled "FINAL_ENTRY" and tapped the play button.
A voice crackled through the speakers. It was tired, old, and full of a quiet, trembling fear.
"This is Dr. Aris. The containment field in Sector 4 is failing. The things outside... the sky-eaters... they are pushing harder. We thought the Titans would protect us. We were so arrogant. We thought living inside a god would save us from the sky."
The voice laughed. It was a dry, hopeless sound that made the hair on Thalos's neck stand up.
"We were wrong. The Titan is not a god. It is a lifeboat. And it is sinking."
Thalos froze. He had always been taught that the Titan was the world. The priests in the Upper City claimed the Titan was a sleeping deity that protected humanity from the Void. But this man—this scientist from the past—was calling it a lifeboat.
The recording continued.
"I have initiated the Chimera Protocol. It is our last resort. If we cannot survive as humans, maybe we can survive as monsters. I have injected the test subjects with the Pure Ichor. If they survive the mutation, they might be strong enough to fight back against the things in the sky."
There was a long pause of static, followed by the sound of distant screaming on the recording.
"It failed. They did not fight back for us. They ate the guards. They ate everything. They are just beasts. We made monsters to save us, and now they are going to consume us. God help us all."
The audio cut off with a sharp click.
Thalos stared at the dark screen, his mind racing.
The monsters in the Pits—the Tunnel Stalkers, the creepers, the horrors that plagued the miners—they were not just random mutations caused by radiation. They were human attempts to build a super-soldier that had gone terribly wrong.
"You tried to force evolution," Thalos whispered to the empty room. "And you succeeded too well."
He clicked on the "Inventory Manifest" folder. He needed to find something useful before he left. Most of the files were corrupted, red "ERROR" boxes filling the screen, but one item caught his eye.
[Storage Locker B: Prototype Combat Injector (1 Unit)]
[Status: Sealed.]
[Contents: Refined Titan Spinal Fluid.]
Thalos felt his heart skip a beat.
Titan Spinal Fluid. In the Marrow Market, raw, unrefined fluid was worth a fortune. But Refined fluid? That was a myth. It was said to be the nectar of the gods, capable of granting immense power without the risk of turning into a mindless abomination.
He looked around the room frantically.
In the corner, behind the skeleton's chair, was a small, reinforced wall safe.
He walked over to it. The keypad was dead, the electronics fried by time. But the locking mechanism was rusted.
Thalos gripped the heavy steel handle.
[Strength Check: 14 required.]
He gritted his teeth. He braced his legs against the wall, his boots finding purchase on the floor. He activated his muscles, feeling the new metallic plates on his arms pull tight.
He did not use finesse. He used brute force.
"Open!" he snarled.
CREAAAK.
The metal groaned in protest. His muscles burned with the effort. The handle bent slowly, the rust flaking off under his grip. Then, with a loud POP that sounded like a gunshot, the internal locking bolts sheared off.
The door swung open.
Inside, sitting on a rotting velvet cushion, was a syringe made of glass and chrome. Inside the tube, a liquid swirled.
It was not blue like the medicine, or green like the monster blood.
It was Gold.
It glowed with its own internal light, casting dancing shadows on Thalos's face.
[Item Identified: Refined Titan Spinal Fluid (Grade B)]
[Effect: Permanently increases Mana Capacity. Stabilizes Genetic Mutations.]
[Value: Immeasurable.]
Thalos's breath hitched.
This was it. Pure Ichor.
In the market, a single drop of this would buy a ticket to the Upper City. It was worth more than his life. Worth more than everyone in the Ribs combined. With this, he could fix his sister. He could buy the best doctors in the Core.
He reached out to take it. His fingers brushed the cold glass.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.
The terminal on the desk suddenly started flashing red. The silent room was filled with a blaring alarm.
[Security Breach Detected in Safe B.]
[Counter-Measure Activated.]
[Releasing Specimen 09.]
The floor beneath Thalos trembled violently.
At the far end of the lab, a massive, reinforced blast door—one much larger than the human-sized door he had entered through—began to slowly grind open. Gears screeched against centuries of rust.
A low, guttural growl echoed from the darkness beyond the door. It sounded like grinding stones mixed with the hiss of steam.
BOOM.
A massive hand gripped the edge of the doorframe. It wasn't human. It was grey, covered in thick armored plates, and had claws the size of pickaxes.
Thalos didn't wait to see the rest of the creature. He grabbed the Golden Syringe and shoved it into his belt pouch, securing the flap.
[Quest Updated: Survive.]
He turned and sprinted for the ventilation shaft.
"Roar!"
The creature burst into the room behind him. The sound was deafening. Thalos felt the wind of its movement on his back. He leaped onto a stack of crates, his boots scrambling for purchase.
He jumped, his fingers digging into the metal grate of the vent high on the wall. He activated [Gecko Grip], his fingers locking onto the metal like magnets.
Below him, Specimen 09 crashed into the crates, shattering them into splinters. Thalos looked down for a split second.
He saw a single, massive red eye staring up at him from a face made of bone and metal.
Thalos hauled himself into the dark, narrow tunnel of the vent and kicked the grate shut behind him.
He crawled forward into the darkness, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. He had the treasure. But now, he had to get it home.