Catastrae leaned over the railing of the observatory deck, pointing her staff out into the shining blue cave before her. She failed to wrench up much emotion as she concentrated on summoning brimflame before her staff, but even then, the medium-sized laser she shot caused the walls of the enormous cave to shudder as it created a rupture in the stone it hit on the other side, where stone began to fall from the ceiling, crumbling and collapsing upon an entire sector of the miniature sea.

She didn’t care much for the wildlife, clearly.

“That is quite strong,” she said, sweeping her staff down dramatically. She glanced at it. “But what do I do next...”

She made her way back to the main terminal, where the top of the staff was still buried in its slot. She walked to it, then cautiously tried to pull it out. It wouldn’t budge.

“Catastrae, do you intend to progress onto Module 3 Guide?” the computer asked her.

“Yes,” she said annoyedly.

“Confirmed! Decyphering Encrypted message. . .”

A hologram of Draedon appeared once more, causing her to scowl again. As he spoke, a lack of interest permeated through his voice, as though he were unimpressed.

“Greetings once more, challenger. I congratulate you on your victory against whatever menial creature I set you upon. As a token of congratulation, you now have access to the simple weaponry stored within this facility. Additionally, should you think yourself powerful, you may seek another facility of mine hidden in the upper bounds of this planet’s atmosphere. I shall watch your progress with stifled curiosity.”

The yellow domed bauble she’d tried to pull out suddenly changed color, turning purple.

The computer’s voice sounded out, “Encrypted information transferred into seeking mechanism. Catastrae, would you like to see the weaponry available to you?”

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She shook her head. This is going to be a pain in the ass...but if I want to be strong... “Show it to me. And...I need something more...”

What she needed, in specific, was a new set of clothes. Her old clothes were both somewhat tattered and bland.

Once a set of machines had sewn her a new set of clothes, she walked to what she would wear: a hooded, red and gold robe and pants, the latter being split into two halves halfway to the ankles.

She dressed out of the clothes that reminded her of her failures, then lifted the robe from the hook that held it and slipped it over her left, then right shoulder. Once it was secured onto her body, she put on the pants as well, and then the set of boots she’d already been wearing.

“Comfortable...” she muttered, stroking her hand across the silken fabric. “But dangerous...” People will recognize these robes...the robes of the witch. Catastrae shrugged. “Let them fear me, then.”

She put on a belt, where she then placed a few important items she’d acquired from the facility. A healing potion, mana potion, a pulse gun, a portable battery for the weapon, a sack of dried mush imbued with the nutrients a human would need to survive for a week of travel, a canteen, and a sea prism.

She didn’t really understand how it worked, but she was enthralled by the prism. It was a neat bauble that she figured would entertain her on her journey.

The pulse gun, a ‘simple’ weapon, was strangely close in power to her small brimstone attacks but was much more reliable. It shot out a bolt of stable energy that wouldn’t waste energy if she shot it from afar. It could also be set to incapacitate someone through an electric shock. Catastrae had found it helpful enough to carry.

And with that, she walked back to the man console, pulled out the newly modified ‘seeking mechanism’, and set it into her staff.

It was time to move.

On the outside, the barren waste filled with massive trees of dead coral, ordinary cacti, and mutated seaweed that grew like grass, she raised her new staff up to the sky.

Then, she let it move.

The staff began to shift in her hand, then pointed...down, and toward the other side of the desert.

For a moment, she thought that meant the next laboratory was, in fact, deep in the desert, but she quickly rolled her eyes. “Damn curved earth...”

She began her trek to the skybound laboratory, far to the other side of the planet.