But this time he wasn’t walking around aimlessly. He had a guide in the form of Syllena’s indications. In what would be years for him, some players would be lucky to find secret loot and bosses, or research every corner of the map to find them.
David was simply guided by his favorite system’s interface.
The closer he got to his destination, the more the Scrapyard was starting to look…older. The Scraps became more and more rusted, almost no Scrap-Bots around, and the few remaining looked like they were gonna turn into rust particles at any moment.
He was approaching a weird “cave” inside the ground. Frankly, without Syllena’s help, he would have never found this place. Going down the cavern seemingly carved inside the rock on which the city of Kork was built, the ground and walls of stone and scraps started to get replaced by a slick, silver colored material.
It had some strange green runes pulsating with energy every few seconds. This was definitely strange; the craftsmanship looked much more…precise and detailed compared to the gnomish constructions he had seen until now. It was like David had suddenly switched settings and was now in a sci-fi spaceship.
Soon, the floor further transformed, becoming a black crystal-like matter which seemed to be shaped into an octagonal shape, from which a soft green light would pulse from its outline of the octagonal shape every few seconds. He looked in front of him.
It was the entrance of some sort of underground complex. The door leading inside the complex, made from some strange silvery metal, had been broken by some powerful explosive, scorching it, alongside most of the floor of the entrance. The explosion came from outside since the door’s broken remains were clearly bent backward.
[Congratulations, you have found the Unique dungeon: Unknown Signal.]
“Was that you, Syllena?”
[It is the system. Before you enter, pay attention to every detail, it may help you with your Class Quest! And we do not know what a unique dungeon is, but it is most likely rare.]
“Maybe it is a dungeon only one person can complete. But why design this for a game? That would just annoy players. Anyway, let's keep moving forward.”
David carefully entered through the broken door, but he was interrupted by a pop-up in front of him. It seemed to be a small introduction to the dungeon story. David noticed soon after that the window was blue instead of green.
[Unique dungeon: Unknown Signal.]
[Difficulty]: Very High
[Recommended Players]: Group of 5
[Level Limit]: 10 - 15
[Story] :
[The gnomes are used to building cities above ancient ruins from advanced civilisations, this way they have easy access to knowledge and artifacts. Most of their current cities, including this one, are above Prothean ruins. They know nothing of this species beyond that their technological level was far beyond what the gnomes can even imagine.]
[The city council has decided to send an expeditionary group of volunteers. Only to discover, much too late, someone had snuck in with them: Sonya Pippelette, direct apprentice and daughter to the Arch-Machinist Tifania Pippelette. You must discover the expedition’s fate. Their goal was to understand a strange signal that is now being sent from inside the Prothean facility. They know nothing of what it could mean, but maybe a machinist or robotic being could interpret it. and what lies at the origin of this signal!]
“Ah! Some…what did Jacob call it again? Lore! Some lore about this world. So it seems I have to find out what happened to the expedition and also discover the truth about this signal. I wonder if I’ll be able to understand it since I'm a robot.”
[Be careful, David. This isn’t just a game, even if the interface makes it look like it. Remember why you’re doing this. A death could be permanent. For both of us.]
“Yes...Don’t worry, Syllena. I’ll never take any risk that could put us in danger. I’ll be extra careful."
David walked further inside the complex, he saw pretty much the same thing as what had been outside, a few debris and bits of doors flung everywhere after the door’s explosion. No trace of any gnomes at the entrance.
He went deeper inside, and only after a few steps did he start to realise that the facility was clearly made by and for bigger inhabitants than gnomes. His own small body, still made to be the size of a gnome, made him feel like a child.
He looked at all the huge doors before him, which seemed to separate this current hallway into seven rooms, three on each side and one in front of him.
Choosing the first door on his right, David approached, and the door opened by itself. It started to ripple like water and just vanished after shrinking itself into a thin little pellet which floated around and encased itself into a small dent close to the edge of the doorway.
By curiosity, David poked the pellet, which did reproduce the same sequence of events in reverse for the door to close itself. And with one last touch to the door to turn it back into a pellet, he finally entered the room.
Inside, despite the dim light which came from the hallway, everything was dark, not enough for someone to be blind, but enough that it would be easy to miss something. He walked forward only to stop and look at his feet when he heard the wet sound his foot had just made landing in a puddle of wet blood.
David, who had always been a law-abiding citizen who had never done as much as a street fight, would have panicked seeing the body lying in that puddle. But his lack of quickening heart or pulse allowed him to keep a clear head and calm his thoughts. Once again, his robotic nature allowed him to control his panic.
He went down on one knee, softly touching the floor with his metallic fingers. The thick liquid seemed to bend around them, and as he pulled them back, little droplets of blood started to fall down. Most droplets impacted the puddle on the floor, making ripples on the surface. While those hitting the dry floor would splatter, like shells hitting the ground.
“It’s so…life-like. Too life-like. I already doubted it was really a game, but this is becoming less and less likely. And yet, I cannot feel sleep, hunger or thirst. Nor can I feel any sensations. Am I in a game or not?”
He moved toward the corpse before him, a gnome, a male, with a thick mustache on his face. Slightly pointed ears, not elf-like but not human either. His face twisted in pain. His body had been impaled by something resembling a blade.
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David wasn’t a coroner, but it didn’t take a genius to figure that a hole as thick as two fingers in a gnome’s body, which had almost been cut in two vertically because of his small size, had been pierced by something akin to a blade.
Something bothered David, unaware of the green eyes lighting up above him, and looking down at his unaware body. The body had clearly not been dragged, and apart from the pool of blood and a splash of it on the wall right in front of him, there wasn’t any sign of battle.
“An ambush…”
[Holo-Shield]
His body summoned a green dome of energy around him. His hand reached forward, grabbing the strange tail-like limb right above the metallic blade, which had bounced off his shield to stab the floor just in front of him.
1 second had passed
A harsh pull from his robotic arms sent the opponent to the floor. David didn’t try to see or understand what he was fighting. Holding on to the tail, his other hand moved to hold on to what seemed to be the construct’s face.
2 seconds
[Gauss Nano-Ray] was used at point-blank range, his hand making a bright green light as he felt thousands of nano-bots rush out of his robotic body in the form of a glowing green ray slamming into the beast’s head.
3 seconds
He held on tightly to the tail, jumping over the beast’s huge, bladed hands, which tried to cut his body in two. The jump was interrupted by the beast’s tail swinging him away, pulling his body along as he was slammed into a wall with enough force to bend it under the impact. The shield absorbed all damage.
4 seconds
Recovering from the shock, David saw a shadow being cast over him, making him slide under the Ambusher, letting it slam down into the floor, stabbing with its two huge front blades. Just as the attacker was able to pull out his arms from the crystal floor, it was struck by one last [Gauss Nano-Ray] as the creature finally disintegrated into dust, as the skill had promised.
Five seconds.
[Prothean Ambusher was killed by [Gauss Nano-Ray], received 100EXP]
Five seconds. Such a small amount of time in David’s eyes should have been quick. And yet he felt like the fight had lasted an entire minute. His robotic hands would be shivering if they could, instead, he closed and opened his fists repeatedly.
The click of his metallic fingers hitting his robotic palm felt relaxing to hear. A reminder that he was a living being and not just a robot who had neither sensations nor a need to eat, sleep, or drink. He didn’t even have any euphoria at his first real fight without using his [Data Break].
David had understood that the beast was in ambush by the lack of blood anywhere else other than in the room. The body wasn’t dragged, and neither was it deposited here while being carried, or he would have seen droplets of blood on the floor.
And with the body and blood being quite fresh, there was no way the killer wouldn’t have left a few drops of blood falling from its weapon or body if it had left the room after impaling someone.
And how did he guess the ambush would come from above? He didn’t, but his shield covered his whole body, so he was able to block the ambush. Everything else was pure instinct. In those five seconds, he hadn’t even thought about using his [Data Break], his human fear of death having reacted before his logic.
[Are you alright, David?]
“I’m fine, Syllena. I..I just hadn’t expected that. That was too close… can you give me a log of the battle?”
[Prothean Ambusher attacked with [Ambushing Stab], David blocked with a [Holo-Shield]]
[David used [Gauss Nano-Ray], dealt 72 (90-18) damage to Protheans Ambusher.]
[Prothean Ambusher threw David into a wall. David took no damage.]
[Prothean Ambusher attacked with [Death From Above], David evaded.]
[David used [Gauss Nano-Ray], dealt 72 (90 - 18) damage to Protheans Ambusher.]
“A total of 144 HP. It seems like Armor directly negates its value from damage, and touching a weak point bypasses all armor. Syllena, can I get access to its stat sheet despite not having used Analyze when it was alive? Or..even if it was turned to dust?”
[Affirmative. Analyze works even on dead beings and objects. And your skill [Gauss Nano-Ray] does not destroy the loot.]
“Thanks!”
“I was lucky…one strike of that tail and I would have been a goner, or very close to it. It had a small pool of HP and little armor compared to the Ravager. It was a sort of robotic assassin, high damage and low HP. Some of his stats are too high, though…64 dexterity when his traits should give him no higher than 47.”
[Must come from his class.]
“Only explanation.”
David reached for the Caligos Unit’s dust pile, curious if the body was compatible…Didn’t seem so. But he got something out of this fight at least, two windows had opened, one about the Body Parts and another about the loot.
[Robotic Body Parts are not compatible for [Advanced Self Modification]]
“Syllena…what is a [Component] and how do I use it?”
[From what we have gathered, [Components] are separated into three parts. Once the three are obtained, they allow the creation of a special, unique weapon, armor, or accessory; it could be anything. Those loots are exclusive to the dungeon and can only be crafted once.]
“Do I know what rank the weapon will be?”
[It is Unique, which is a specific category; it might not even have a rank, but we shall see soon enough. ]
“True. Let’s keep going then.”
I hope everyone is enjoying this chapter. If you spot any mistake do not hesitate to tell me in the comments. My main language isn't english so I'm more than eager to increase my level and better myself. Same for the System's current "appearance" do not hesitate if you dislike it and want something more simple and maybe easier to read!
Have a great day!