Blood of Dawnwalker: How to Get the Gladius and Brencis’s Blood Early

Most of the strongest gear in The Blood of Dawnwalker sits behind hours of story progress. The Gladius does not. A legendary shortsword with 220 DPS and a Phial of Brencis’s Blood are both sitting in the same cave under Mount Balaur, and the entire detour takes a few minutes once you know where to climb. You can clear it with roughly 29 days still left on the clock before dawn.

Quick answer: At night, fast travel to the Mount Balaur shrine, climb the cliffs to its right to start “The Beast of Balaur,” kill the hellhound boss inside the cave, then use Shadow Step on the ledge at the back to reach the study room. The Gladius is in the chest there, and the Phial of Brencis’s Blood is on the table beside the altar.

What the Gladius and Brencis’s Blood actually give you

The Gladius is a Legendary Shortsword built around fast swings and critical damage, and it leans hard into fighting human enemies rather than supernatural ones. The trade-off is printed right on the item card, so it is worth reading before you swap off whatever you are carrying.

Stat	Value
Type	Legendary Shortsword
DPS	220 (+97)
Damage	127–163
Attack Speed	Fast
Weapon Art	R2 + L2, 15s cooldown
Damage against Mortals	+11.2% (+11%)
Maximum Vampiric Health	+21% (+21%)
Weapon Critical Hit Damage	+10.5%
Weapon Critical Hit Chance	+7% (+7%)
Damage against Supernatural Enemies	+0% (−4.8%)
Activation Charge Restoration from Actions	+0% (−4.8%)

The Phial of Brencis’s Blood is a Legendary Consumable. Drinking it pushes Coen’s corruption to level 2 and immediately unlocks Piercing Shriek in the Vampirism tree, which is a vampiric power you would otherwise have to work toward. There is no skill point cost and no waiting.

Note: raising corruption is a permanent shift in Coen’s state, not a temporary buff. If you are deliberately keeping corruption low for a particular playthrough, hold onto the phial instead of drinking it — the Gladius is still worth the trip on its own.

Requirements before you set off

There is only one hard gate on this run, and it is the time of day. The ledge deep inside the cave can only be scaled with Shadow Step, and Shadow Step is a nighttime vampiric ability. Arrive during the day and you will clear the boss but hit a dead end before the study room.

Do the whole run at night so Shadow Step is available.
Be ready for one boss fight against a hellhound, the Beast of Balaur.
No prior quest, level, or story flag is needed — the questline starts when you reach the cliffs.

Route to the Mount Balaur cave

Open the world map and find the Mount Balaur shrine. It sits west of Boar’s Back and south of Briar Sloughs, tucked between those two regions on the way toward Laslo Glen. Travel there and let the shrine discovery register.

Shrine Discovered: Mount Balaur notification appears on screen with the map prompt — The Mount Balaur shrine registers as discovered when you arrive, giving you a fast travel point for the run. Image: Rebel Wolves

Face the shrine and head to the cliffs on its right-hand side, then climb. Getting up there is what triggers “The Beast of Balaur” questline, so if nothing appears in your tracker, you are on the wrong side of the shrine.

Coen crosses a snowy mountain path while another quest objective sits hundreds of meters away — The approach runs through snowy high ground, with unrelated regional objectives still sitting on the HUD. Image: Rebel Wolves

Follow the path. It is linear, so there is nothing to search for. Partway along you will hit a low rock obstacle — crawl under it and keep going until the cave mouth is in front of you.

Enter the cave. The objective updates to explore the cave, and the boss arena is a short walk in.

The Beast of Balaur quest tracker shows the Explore the cave objective inside the cavern — Once inside, the tracker switches to “Explore the cave” and leads you toward the boss arena. Image: Rebel Wolves

Beating the Beast of Balaur and clearing the arena

The Beast of Balaur is a hellhound and the only real fight on this route. Killing it drops Psglov Claws and a Hellhound Pelt from the body, so loot the corpse before you move on.

Sweep the arena afterwards. There is a sarcophagus in the room that holds the Reliable Battlesword, a 140 DPS weapon that is a decent early upgrade in its own right if you have been running something weaker. There is also a body inside the cave worth investigating, which updates the journal entry for the quest.

Coen examines a fresh body in the cave as the Beast of Balaur journal entry updates — Investigating the body in the cave updates “The Beast of Balaur” journal entry. Image: Rebel Wolves

Reaching the study room and looting the Gladius

Go to the back of the arena and find the raised ledge. Use Shadow Step to get up it. This is the point where a daytime visit stops cold, so if the prompt is missing, wait for night and come back.

Continue deeper along the passage until you reach a room lined with books, scrolls, and maps. This is the study, and it is worth emptying. You can pick up the Unholy Fervour Manual, a Recipe for Yrakhiri Attunement, a Scribble-Covered Map, and Faded Orders here.

Open the chest in the study room. The Gladius is inside. It goes straight into your inventory as a Legendary Shortsword, so you can equip it on the spot.

Turn your attention to the altar in the same area. Inspect it, then loot the table next to it — that is where the Phial of Brencis’s Blood sits. It is easy to walk past because the altar draws the eye first.

Quest tracker directs Coen to Poltia to ask around about the body found in the cave — With the cave cleared, the quest points you onward to Poltia to ask about the body. Image: Rebel Wolves

Drinking the phial and unlocking Piercing Shriek

Open your inventory and consume the Phial of Brencis’s Blood. You do not need to be anywhere specific, and there is no cooldown or condition attached to it.

You will know it worked immediately. The screen flashes a CORRUPTION RISES notification followed by New Vampiric Powers Available, your corruption level moves to 2, and Piercing Shriek appears as unlocked in the Vampirism tree. If neither prompt shows, the phial is still sitting in your inventory unused.

Why the run stalls, and how to fix it

Problem	Fix
The quest never starts	Climb the cliffs to the right of the shrine, not the surrounding terrain. The questline triggers on the climb.
You cannot get up the ledge past the boss arena	You are there in daylight. Shadow Step is a nighttime ability — return after dark.
The path seems to end early	Look for the low rock and crawl under it. The route is linear from there to the cave entrance.
No Gladius in the study room	The sword is in a chest, not on the shelves. The altar table holds the phial separately.

Done in one night, this detour costs you very little of the countdown and leaves Coen with a fast legendary weapon, a spare battlesword, a stack of manuals and recipes, and an extra vampiric power. The Gladius is not a universal answer — it gives up ground against supernatural enemies and activation charge restoration — but against human opponents in the early hours, nothing else you can reach this quickly comes close.