I always perceived climbing stairs as either annoying or inconsequential, but I’ve been climbing these stairs for hours now! The longest stairs I ever climbed only took around 30 minutes, I guess I should be happy to be a robot right about now.
With me being a robot climbing stairs is nothing more than boring, I don’t feel my legs ache or myself gasping for air like I’ve been running a marathon. The staircase itself doesn’t change much either, it’s still ornately carved into the gray stones of the underground, it would look more at home in a church, carved into some white marble, but I won’t complain. One thing was clear, whoever made this thing was some kind of magician, there is absolutely no way that this was dug out manually and these carvings were all done by hand.
The lights are the other factor amazing me, they’re just round orbs that glow, but this entire place looks so dilapidated, they must be magical too, there is no way someone is keeping this place clean and dust-free. But despite that, I don’t feel like there is anything out of place here, there aren’t cracks in the walls or any other sort of dilapidation that comes with disuse.
I wonder to myself just what kind of great mage made this place and for what purpose, I know fantasy stories and how it usually goes, but just a mage building into the earth? That seems weird. No, this has got to be built by a whole society of these guys, that would make more sense.
While I’m focused on the world of fantasy I’m building out in my mind, I finally make it to the top of the stairs and am met with large metal double doors, which look tough and sturdy enough to survive a siege. The entrance is still very simply carved into the stone, but it looks like there was no cave to begin with, forcing them to mine out this large entrance. I make my way over to the door and push against it, hoping for it to simply swing open. It does budge, but I can feel resistance from the other side stopping it from swinging open.
Guess I’ll just have to break it. Sorry, ancient civilization of earth wizards. I charge a small amount of energy into my fist and punch the right door, the door kicks against whatever is on the other side and I hear a loud THUD resound on the other side as the door quickly rebounds closed and swings half open again, coming to a stop. I wait for a second while dust from the other side slowly floats into the room, when I sneak through the now open door, I can barely see anything from all the smoke, but there is actual real sunlight refracting through the kicked-up dust here!
Making a beeline for the lights I stumble and get stuck on something large and metallic, for a second, I try to make sense of what I’m stuck on, but before I can even start guessing the long metallic thing starts to move. I get thrown off of it and right myself up, making my way away from whatever I can’t see yet. I hear loud footsteps standing themselves up slowly but surely when the dust starts to settle, I see what, or more fitting who I just kicked off of their feet.
A giant human figure made entirely of metal towers before me, easily the size of a two-story building, it doesn’t look particularly mad, but it does look like it’s meant to defend the entrance, which I just came out of. It approaches me swiftly and tries to sweep at me with a hand but I dodge backward. Should I just book it or will this guy follow me?
I make a turn around and quickly try to run out of the cave but the iron golem stops me. When I sprint out the iron golem sprints after and straight over me coming to a stop in front of me. It blocks the entrance and immediately begins to swipe at me again. So, I guess I’ve got to get this nuisance off of me before I can get out of here. But how am I supposed to beat a giant made entirely made out of metal?!
The golem, while quick on its feet due to its long stride isn’t very quick otherwise, so I don’t have the hardest time dodging its attacks since they are very telegraphed. I jump and dodge its attacks while thinking about what I could even that could damage this thing, would a [Power Punch] hurt him more than myself?
Falling and catching myself using [Skills] showed me that I can injure myself even if I use [Skills], and with my body currently in a damaged state anyway I am not keen to hurt it further, but it looks like I’ll have no choice…
Dodging more attacks I think about a way to damage the golem, but the only thing that comes to mind is using what’s left of my battery, this thing isn’t made of meat, it’s an otherworldly creation of metal.
Like an angered child the giant golem clump both its fists together and raises them over its head, it releases immediately and both its arms hurl straight towards me at high velocity, I charge up a powerful [Power Punch].
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My right arm coalesces with ribbons of light, enveloping it in what looks like a baggy shirt arm flowing in the wind, but is actually pure energy. I immediately release my arm up top to the giant golem and the moment our arms clash I can see the rays of light fixate on the face of my fist and explode with a raw power that violently bounces away the golem’s arm.
Its arms shoot up like a sports fan that has just seen his team score a game-turning point, they then keep rotating back until they can’t anymore and the golem’s elbows begin to bend at an unnatural angle. The golem’s upper arms keep bending until they can’t anymore and its lower arms and hands shoot out of their joints like catapult projectiles straight into the important door I came from before, toppling them in the process.
The sheer force of its arms ripping straight off pulls the golem back until it topples backward, creating a large dust cloud again. This time though I won’t let it get away, I run up to the golem to give it a killing blow.
It lies there with its arms destroyed completely helpless, unable to help itself up. Before I can even assess the situation, I see the golem’s exterior begin to glow and seethe with smoke. Wait! Is this loser just going to blow himself up because he can’t win?! I sprint as fast as I can out of the cave and tumble down a small hill in the forest the cave is based.
As I tumble down, I can see a large shockwave emanate from the hole I just shot out of, I hear small rocks and sandy particles bounce off of me and see them flying straight into the forest in front of me. I stand back up, having sufficiently rolled, and see a large dust cloud fly slowly crawl its way out of the cave. May you rest in peace, brother in steel.
I wait for a second for the defeat screen to pop up but nothing happens. What?! So, cowards and losers who kill themselves don’t even give me XP because I didn’t give him the killing blow?! A bit annoyed at the move my brother in steel made I huff around for a bit in sheer anger at my comrade’s cowardly tactics.
Now that I am back out of the cave I make my way around the forest, the fight with the golem and all the insects drained my battery pretty hard so I’d have to refrain from using [Skills] until I could find a nice place to hunker down and recharge. I walk around a bit aimlessly in the forest, but I’m not a complete idiot. Well, let’s see…The sun rises in the east and falls in the west…Wait, is that even the same in this world? Which way was it rising again while we driving in the caravan? Uhh…
Not really knowing becoming any wiser I decide to simply start walking in a direction until I find a road and then follow that, I mean someone’s got to know where the capital is right? Wait…Oh yeah, I’m a monster made of metal…Like anyone’s going to give me directions…Well, I DO have an adventurer’s badge, maybe if they can’t flee, I can show them that, and we can talk and then go from there? Whatever, I need to travel on roads anyway, so let’s just go to one and see how it goes.
I simply start walking, it’s daytime right now, but with my newfound ability to see in the dark, I’ll keep walking at night. The forest before me captivates me a bit, it isn’t as green and luscious as the Teip Mana Forest, but it somehow feels even more “natural”, it gives off a feeling that it’s filled to the brim with life and not even harmful life at that.
This forest seems to be more broadly stroked to give off a peaceful demeanor than the Teip Mana Forest, which felt more fantastical and magical in its looks. It felt like I could’ve stumbled upon a witch’s house in the Teip Mana Forest, while here I feel like I am bound to find simple hunters or lumberjack’s lodge. I keep on trucking through the forest and while I see the occasional wild animal, they’re not very different from the ones on earth, maybe a bunny with a horn on its head here or a slightly too big boar there, but nothing wild.
As I keep walking the sun is slowly beginning to set, it’s a beautiful sight to finally be able to see the stars again instead of some dusty rock when looking up. In such a medieval world as this one there isn’t even any light pollution to spoil the view so I stop for some time simply to admire the stars. All things considered, the night isn’t bright by any measure even with all the stars in the sky, but it doesn’t need to be, my new companion, night-vision, fixed that problem for me easily.
I continue walking after taking a short break to look at the stars and just when I was about to begin complaining about there not being any road nearby, I stumble upon one, it’s not very wide or well-used like the one we were supposed to use to get to the capital, but it’ll have to do. I walk along for some time until I see my night-vision pick up bright flames from campfires in the distance, upon coming closer I see men in leather armor sitting by them chatting with each other.
Now, how do I approach them without them wanting to murder me instantly? A few approaches go through my mind, but I ultimately settle upon a single one.
----------------------------------------
“It’s been a tough day, but we made good progress, didn’t we?” I say as I gulp down some of my water. “Sure, has been, if it weren’t for those damn kobolds we would’ve made even more though.” Says David as he chugs he chews on some jerky, “I would love to know where they’re all coming from though, I don’t wanna get ambushed by those stupid furballs anymore. “
The conversation fizzles out just like that, David and I don’t have much in common, so this always happens, but just as I think we’re going to have another boring evening I hear footsteps approach from the road. Nobody travels late at night, even less so without some kind of lantern to guide them the way, so this has got to be a monster with night vision. David and I eye each other, but before we can coordinate anything we hear a voice call out to us, “Please don’t be alarmed I am not an enemy, I am simply passing by and was wondering if this is the way to the capital?”