Red knew that Gruff's body wouldn't fit through the tunnel to the blob. It would need to be hacked apart if he wanted to get everything through it. It was a harsh fate even for someone who tried to murder him.

 

Red didn't like the idea of what he was about to do. To the boy, it was one thing to cut down someone who was trying to kill you, but to butcher them like an animal after they were dead? It didn't sit right with him. It reminded Red of all those slaves who resorted to savagery and cannibalism to keep themselves alive down here. However, the youth wasn't about to let his conscience get in the way of his escape.

 

Most people who died down here ended up in a monster's stomach regardless, so Red was just going to expedite the process. At least that was how the boy rationalized it.

 

Hobbling over to Gruff's corpse, the first thing he did was to try to get his cleaver free. The weapon had sunken quite deeply into the giant's rib cage and it looked like it would take quite a bit of effort to get it loose. Still, with patience and a lot of wiggling, after a few tries, Red succeeded in freeing the bloody blade.

 

Giving the cleaver a look over, the boy saw that thankfully no damage had been done to its edge. It would still be useful against the monsters, but next time he needed to choose a better area to cut into. Gruff was a human and a wound like that was enough to kill him, but those giant insects were far sturdier and bigger than the man. If Red got his weapon stuck into their bodies and they didn't die, then it would become a very unfortunate situation.

 

The youth also took note of the fact both his clothes and blade were covered in blood. The monsters down here were very sensitive to this kind of smell. If Red wanted to sneak through their nests then he would need to get some new clothes or clean the ones he was wearing. But not yet.

 

The dirty work still wasn't done.

 

Red took a deep breath, then started hacking away with his cleaver.

 

...

 

Unsurprisingly, the task took a long time. By the end of it, the boy's arms and chest were almost completely covered in blood. Still, that was the easiest part of the job. Now he needed to bring all that over to the other side of the tunnel while walking on a bad leg.

 

It took more than an hour before Red had managed to crawl through the small tunnel with every piece of flesh. He had to be especially careful not to scrape his wounded thigh on the stone floor, so that made the process take even longer.

 

The boy eventually had to give up when he was trying to fit the giant's torso into the passage. It was too big to go through and for Red to walk in at the same time. Not to mention, he wasn't about to bisect the man's chest and bring in all his organs and guts one by one either. The youth was in a hurry and he felt that would be going too far, even for him.

 

When Red brought everything through to the other side of the tunnel, he felt as if he had just gone through a battle with another monster. There was no time to rest, though. Tying up the remaining pieces of flesh, the boy started to hobble down towards the room where his dark friend stayed in.

 

Comfortable purple light greeted him and Red could swear it seemed even brighter than he remembered. The position of the strange creature and its tentacles remained the same as the boy recalled, however. As soon as he entered the chamber though, the mouth quickly formed on the heart of the blob and Red heard a voice echo in his mind.

 

"Where have you been?"

 

The tone of the creature seemed no different than usual, but the boy felt a shiver run down his spine when he heard it.

 

"...Occupied." Red responded.

 

"With what?" The blob asked.

 

"Monsters." He pointed at his wounded leg.

 

"Ah, I see." It seemed satisfied with Red's short explanation.

 

The boy wasn't lying either, he had been occupied because of the monsters, but that wasn't the reason he hadn't visited. Still, since the dark thing believed him there was no point in pressing the issue further.

 

"Did you bring food?" The blob asked.

 

"Yes." Red threw the tied-up body parts forward. "I brought meat."

 

"...Really?" The being seemed to not believe the words it was hearing.

 

"Yes, it's for you."

 

Almost as soon as he was done talking, the blob's tongue shot forward. Wrapping around the pieces of flesh, it quickly brought them into the creature's mouth. Red was almost wondering how it was going to fit in all that meat, but its mouth suddenly grew much bigger, covering almost the entirety of its body.

 

It swallowed everything into a dark abyss before returning to its normal size and starting to munch. Sickening crunching sounds of tearing flesh and breaking bones echoed in the chamber. The blob's teeth found no obstacle and completely crushed the body parts between its maws. Red noticed that despite swallowing a large number of things, the size of the being's heart didn't increase at all.

 

For a second the youth was too disturbed by the noises to do anything else. However, seeing as the blob was paying him no mind, he started to perform his training exercises. It was a hard task to accomplish on a bad leg. Though, as Viran had explained it, these movements were only made to stimulate the body to an optimal state. Even if Red couldn't masterfully execute them, it was enough to simply complete the routine no matter how long it took.

 

After more than 5 minutes of stumbling into his steps, the boy finally felt a numbing feeling spreading over his spine and upper arms. Falling onto the ground in a sitting position, Red looked at the blob only to find that the being was still chewing away.

 

"I need the energy."

 

The munching got faster and after ten seconds the being finally opened its mouth. What came out of it, however, was something Red had never seen before. A huge purple mist mixed with traces of red spread over the chamber, the color so vivid that it completely blocked the youth's sight.

 

The Spiritual energy forced its way into his body before he even got the chance to try and direct it. Red felt an aching pain spread over his acupoints as the energy swept over his Spinal Vein and toward his Upper Arm Veins. The boy felt as if he was going to pass out while this force swept over his insides and he had to struggle almost to the point of unconsciousness.

 

Red did his best to direct the energy towards his unopened acupoints, but the youth could not control this brutal wave. They sought the path of least resistance and soon were painfully knocking against the edges of his upper arm vein. Following an excruciating burst, the boy felt his acupoint open. The energy wasn't finished, though and it continued attacking the vein.

 

Minutes passed and soon Red felt another one of his arms acupoints open.

 

"ARRGH!"

 

The pain was even worse this time but the boy refused to let himself fall unconscious.

 

"Can't you handle it?"

 

The words barely registered in his mind. As the spiritual energy battered against his spiritual vein, Red felt some small degree of control return over his mind. From what the boy could tell, the 10 standard upper arm acupoints had been opened. The vein could be considered to be completed, but he knew there were still two other ones he needed according to Viran's special technique.

 

Red was also aware he would need to direct the process himself and that they wouldn't open on their own like the other ones. Surprisingly, as he struggled to gain control over the energy inside, the youth felt another energy flow in from an object within his pouch. Looking down he could see a green mist seeping into his body.

 

"Hmm? That's interesting." The blob's voice resounded within his mind.

 

Once again, Red understood nothing. He felt two quick pops in his arm, the pain far milder this time around, and the boy knew the two special acupoints were opened. The spiritual energy inside his body lessened significantly, but it was still strong enough to ravage his spiritual veins.

 

The concentration of the mist around the room was beginning to diminish, and Red was able to see his surroundings. Recovering from his initial shock, the boy managed to direct these remaining forces towards his legs. More accurately, his left leg.

 

This was Red's plan from the beginning. He had hoped to skip his arm completely and concentrate on opening one side of his upper leg vein. Viran had explained to him in the past that doing something like this would be very unwise. Targeting two separate vein nodes like the legs and the arms at the same time would create an imbalance within the body, causing the spiritual energy to split and dissipate into the two incomplete veins. Opening acupoints in either vein would therefore become twice as hard.

 

However, Red had not only planned to do that, but he had also wanted to completely focus only on one of his legs, specifically the wounded one. Viran hadn't told him about any adverse effects of focusing on one limb only. However, the boy was sure it probably wasn't a wise course of action either. His objective, for now, was simply to strengthen the leg and improve its healing.

 

It wouldn't make an immediate difference, but perhaps it would be enough to speed up the recovery and allow Red to ignore the injury. The boy had seen how Viran was able to power through some very heavy injuries with his 12 opened veins, so he hoped opening the leg vein would make a difference. Suffice it to say, his entire plan went south when the spiritual energy started to ravage his insides. He didn't manage to control the raging force, and it had naturally flowed into his arms.

 

What was left was still quite a bit, but Red intended on using everything he got to open his upper leg vein to increase his chances of escaping.

 

Concentrating on his legs, Red felt the faint existence of a closed pathway connected to his spinal vein. With some effort, the boy used his partial control over the energy and directed it towards that point. The power battered against the vein and after another torturous minute, Red experienced a pop inside his body.

 

His left leg spasmed in pain. The youth had to bite his lips so as not to pass out from the sheer agony that spread through his thigh. The remaining energy, finding a new channel to flow into, started to strike into the vein's next acupoint in his right thigh.

 

This wasn't Red's plan, though. The boy forcefully directed the spiritual energy towards his left leg and into the next obstacle in that limb. Doing this would be equivalent to opening the third or fourth acupoint in his upper leg vein and the difficulty increased substantially with that. Still, Red was set on seeing the task through.

 

Minutes and minutes passed as the youth forcefully steered the power towards his left thigh. The pain Red felt was debilitating. The rest of his body couldn't move and at many times he considered simply letting the energy go. However, his desire to escape this place and see the task through kept him going through pure mental strength.

 

Right as the spiritual energy was about to run out, the boy felt another pop. The acupoint opened, but this time he couldn't hold on.

 

'This again, huh?'

 

The last thing Red saw was the blob, seemingly staring at him even without eyes. Then there was darkness.