"Nikana Prime…" Brandon holds it carefully. A decorated golden like blade with very fine details. Along with a sheath. "Well… I guess I could use a sword… might be worth a lot of money too." He keeps observing it silently and sheaths it on his back. Fitting perfectly.
"Brandon?" It sounds over his coms "Should we notify the people about our presence at the 21th floor?" she shows him an email notification ready to be sent to everyone.
"Not yet, next floor maybe. Or until they catch up with us." Brandon walks up the newly formed stairs and looks up at the door in front of him. "Before we go… Anna, delete all the spider legs and eyes from my inventory. I want no reminder of this place, ever again."
"On it" Anna quickly says and sees messages pop up about deletion. Relieved they are gone he lays his feet on the door. Submachine gun ready to fire and taking deep breaths.
Crashing the door open, and startling NPCs Brandon aims around and lowers his gun after seeing nothing noteworthy. It was another town… or… very small town… more like a hamlet. Just a couple of houses in an open plains with some shops built. The door in the middle of the village disappeared scaring Brandon.
"Anna! How do I get back to the last floor!" he looks behind him. Nothing of the door was left. Only a neatly shaped pile of rocks… slowly… forming.
"Uhm, what you are seeing Brandon, is a teleport gate being made. That is your way to travel from now on. You can even go back to the 20th floor. And maybe… even the 5th floor! We can contact the others!" Anna yelps excited.
"No, I am going forward only. Maybe go back to that smith every now and then. Only if needed." He watches as the gate activates and a portal forms in the middle. The NPC continue their daily work carrying boxes or hoeing small bits of land. Some passing by and giving friendly greetings.
Looking around, he saw it was all forests again, and some lakes. But also, a convenient wooden path for him to follow. Looking up, he saw the bright sun and blue sky. Mountains surrounding the Hamlet on one side, and green grass everywhere. It looked peaceful. Reminding him of planet Harvest… or… what once was Harvest.
"Anna, what is this place called?" he starts walking out of the Hamlet and following the wooden path.
"Coral. It is one, if not the only one, on this floor. To get your things repaired, I think you should go back to the 21st floor. It's cheaper there."
"Understood." Brandon keeps walking over the path. Spotting almost no beasts trying to attack him. Noting this, he breaks into a sprint. Uncovering as much as possible. Only encountering 3 wolves in 1 kilometer of running. "Only very few things trying to attack. That's convenient."
He kept sprinting for a good hour and reaches one edge of the map. But he had uncovered far more. Most of the landscape was dotted with lakes and each lake meant less ground to cover. So far, he had found 3 lakes, and one with a diameter of one kilometer. He never really looked at things beautiful. He knew what was beautiful, would be taken away at some time in his life. Like Harvest and his home planet. But this, was nice to be around.
"Enjoying the view?" Anna teases and chuckles over the speaker. Brandon sighs and looks at it. Standing still.
"Yes" was the simplest answer he could give. It was a beautiful sight. Maybe he would come back here sometime to relieve stress. "But now is not the time. We got daylight to spend."
"Right… just follow the wooden walkway and you should be alright." Anna keeps mapping all the new information she gets from Brandon and looks at it in confusion. "Don't you find it a bit strange that… this floor is so peaceful and almost cleansed from monsters? This could be a good spot for players to be. You know? For those who don't want to fight, or elderly."
"Fine, I'll give them a message about this floor when I am done with it." Brandon keeps walking at a steady 12 km/h clearing the floor rather easily due to the walkways. And what he didn't explore, was dense forest which with one glance, did not contain much or mountains with peaks and no structure.
"Brandon, I am willing to bet the Boss room is in… north-west direction." Anna chimes and starts putting down waypoints through undiscovered area. "It's where the mountains lower and the forests become less dense."
"Going" is all he responded and breaks into a sprint. "Anna, how far?"
"3 kilometers or something. Better save up your energy." As she says that, Brandon immediately slows down. Walking pace. Calm. "Can I join you?"
"Yes, roam free" Brandon takes off his helmet and gets blinded by the light a little. His helmet did darken everything. It took a couple of seconds for him to see again with Anna standing in front of him and snapping her finger before him.
"Come on, it can't be that bad!" Anna looked annoyed over her glasses and a pale skin nearly matching his. "And yes, I changed because I like doing that!"
"Get moving already." Brandon sighs and rubs his eyes as he can finally see. "Anna, are we sure we want to warn others of our presence? I think I like being ahead of everyone else for a change. Plus, we can get things done solo, which gives us new rewards. Including for you."
"I am well aware that it will halt our progress, but down there, a lot of people are dying, and here we are clearing floors without a problem."
"That would be better yes. For us to clear tougher floors and get stronger to support them later on. Or throw them into the deep right away with insufficient resources."
Anna was silent for a little while. Before agreeing to it and going silent. "We'll continue solo. Until they reach floor 20."
It is a pixelated mess around 'The Machine'. Cutting clean through nearly everything with its blade and pinning enemies to the wall with its bow. A golden decorated bow with blue string. And just by the sound of the arrows leaving the compound, you know that they hurt. His floor looked like it had been cleared 100%. Nothing left alive and all dungeons and labyrinths gone. The only thing that had not been killed yet was the boss. And that is where he was now.
"If I beat you. Will I stop dreaming, and once again wake up in the second dream?" it questions standing before the doors. "I wish Lotus was here to guide me through… or maybe even Ordis… Tenshin…" it sighs softly and pushes open the door. Waiting to be ambushed and jumped on by whatever lurks in the room.
The door closes behind it slowly and fires light up. Revealing a giant with two heads. Holding an axe and a sword. Its eyes fixed on the machine and making something similar to laughter. Charging at the machine with rage in its four eyes. What it didn't realize though, is that the machine was waiting for it. "Just a little closer dumbass." It muses materializing two pistols in his hands. As soon as the giant was close enough for the machine, it raises both guns and releases a flurry of bullets. 48 bullets from two pistols within 1 second. Each impacting on an eye and making the giant roar in pain.
Stumbling forward and trying to hit the machine with its axe it falls and tries to get up quickly. Being showered with bullets over and over again. The bullet steam never seemed to stop. Once it gets up, the bullet stream stops and the giant looks around in rage. Its eyes bleeding and vision hazy. Swinging around the sword and axe like mad. Hearing a clunk, the giant grins. He must have hit the player and listen carefully to where he was. Only to be surprised by something small hitting his head and going through. Making it look in the general direction. Only to see the player holding a golden white bow. With a thick blue string preparing another arrow.
Having had enough of this fight already, the giant charges at the player again and slams both his weapons down on the player. Who dodged in the nick of time and fires another arrow up at the giant.
"Nearly 75% of the first bar. 3 more to go and already running out of weapon durability." The machine looks at its bow, displaying a red bar and 10% left. His pistols had 15% left. The only thing that wasn't really broken was his sword. The Broken-war. "Come at me you big baby. I've faced dwarves scarier than you." The machine taunts and rushes towards the giant again.
It took him 20 minutes. 20 minutes and an almost broken bow and pistols. But he did it. The two-headed giant has been defeated and the machine sits in the middle of the room. Cross-legged and meditating. He needs this for a moment.
"Congratulations! You defeated Two-headed Giant Floor 25!"
"Rewards: 5.000 currency, 5.000 XP, 1 skill point" "Last hit reward: Cape of endurance" "Solo clear reward: Vicious Frost, Scorch, Infected Clip, 10.000 Currency, 10.000 XP, 3 skill points, Forma."
"A Forma? That's good." The machine grins. Materializing the piece of equipment in front of him. It looked like a golden puzzle piece with the same decorations as his bow. "Where to put you though? on me… my Paris… my vipers… or my Broken-war…" the machine toys with the puzzle piece in his hand. Laughing softly. "Of course my Paris. I want to get it to its full potential." And the machine materializes the 1% bow. Laying the Forma piece on top of the bow and watching it melt and make the bow more golden and recharging it to 100%. "Nice." Pulling the string once again and loading an arrow. Watching it soar through the sky and stick to a wall.
"I know I have you and all… but loneliness does creep up my back. Don't you think Nyx?" the machine softly chatters in his meditation. And the machine nods slowly. "We should get going to the next floor. And hope that it won't take too long to awake from this dream." The machine stands and walks to the doors. "Put the skill points into critical damage and equip the cloak. I think we might need it. And equip the loot we have gotten from the boss."
The machine doesn't hesitate for a moment and materializes the Infected clip. Pouring toxin into the arrow quiver. The scorch by putting a muzzle on the pistol's barrel. And the Vicious Frost by placing a gem into the sword hilt. Making the sword blade colder and make frozen vapor. "Alright… Nyx, open up that door for me will you?" it sounds and the machine just walks towards the giant closed door up the stairs to go to the next floor. A soft clank and thud with every step and breathing through the helmet. "Nyx… once we find an inn, you can rest. I will let Mag take over from there." The machine nods and places a foot on the door. The bow ready to fire with poison dripping from the arrow. With one swift thrust the doors fly open to reveal something similar to a giant cave. Only one light source, and that is some kind of artificial light on the top of the floor. "I do not think we are going to find an inn soon dear Nyx." The machine lazily nods and walks forth... the bow still ready to fire on whatever might jump. And unfortunately, it did. Some kind of imp jumped at the machine, only to be fired upwards by the sheer force of the arrow and pinning it to the roof.
"It's going to be another one of those floors…"
Sooo... I am so sorry this took forever. I just couldn't find the imagination and creativity anymore. and I had to play Warframe again to know where to go with 'The Machine'. If any are wondering. This is after the War Within.
Sincerely, the voice you hear in your head when you are reading this.