[Dungeon of Stories] 50 – Bright’s Interlude

Chaos. The expedition Bright led into the ruined city turned into pure chaos, as surrounding the ‘Dome’ were dozens of [Corrupted Defense Units] patrolling the perimeter, and upon accidentally aggroing one such Defense Unit, a dozen strong attacked them. 

Luckily for Bright and the others, the robots ranged from level 50 to 100, with the largest round machine reaching level 150 and being an artificial boulder that flattened everything in its path. 

Unlike the Enforcers that the Obelisk manifested, these Defense Units were cumbersome and easy to outmaneuver. Still, they made up for that in durability; the armor plating of the machines easily deflecting every blow from their primitive weapons. Despite their advantages, the machines did have weaknesses, weaknesses the expedition viciously exploited.

These weaknesses came in the form of their two small cameras that acted as the 'eyes' for the Defense Units, blinding them, before aiming for the joints in their legs to cripple their movement. If they were accurate enough, they also aimed for the joints in their arms, sometimes even crippling their very weapons with a few well-placed shots with skill-infused attacks or spells.

That was not the only thing they encountered; they also encountered a new type of robot, the System labeled as a 'Watcher,' a small robot that had a small 'laser' attack that melted through everything they had, but that wasn't the worst thing about these watchers.

The Watchers floated in the air, constantly scanning the area around them and providing an 'eye' on the sky for the other robotic units in the area. They also acted as an alarm, calling the other robots around it when they detected trespassers or entities it considered hostile.

That's just what Bright and the others assumed, however, as no one but Bright had [Inspect] at a high enough level to get a comprehensive amount of information and could only go off what they witnessed and guessed.

It only took encountering a single [Watcher] for Bright's expedition to take a turn for the worse, as more and more [Corrupted Defense Units] rolled into the group and began attacking everyone on sight. Forced to distract the machines to keep his expeditionary members alive, Bright led the machines away from the expedition, heading west along the perimeter of the Dome and running into more and more machines as he did, till he had a tide of metal rolling after him.

Bright at first thought that this was where he'd die, until someone found his amulet again, but he honestly thought he would die. So, in a desperate gamble, he flooded his body with his mana, infusing every muscle and tendon with his mana, unlocking a new skill.

[General Skill Unlocked!]

[Mana Reinforcement (Active) Level 1 - Flood your body with mana, infusing every muscle, tendon, and cell with surplus energy, granting yourself temporary, but tremendous strength and power. But be wary, this boost in power comes at a cost.]

Where before Bright was one of the slower members of the expedition, the power that flooded his body gave him the speed to match the higher-level [Aspiring Hunters] of the expedition, giving him the speed and agility necessary to escape from the machines by fleeing into the city and using what cars and greenery he could to avoid the chasing robots.

When they were out of sight, Bright finally let out a sigh of relief and released his control over the mana, reinforcing his body, and instantly regretted his actions.

His muscles immediately spasmed and cramped up on him, his body sending countless signals to his brain warning him of the extensive muscle damage caused by overuse and strain. Bright thought himself accustomed to pain, but in that very moment, he knew that to be untrue.

He collapsed to his knees and craddled up against himself as pain wracked his body and mind.

...

Hours later, when Bright reawoke, he was met with a loss of 300 HP and a status effect called [Strain], which lowered the regen of HP, MP, and SP until he fully recovered. 

Not only that, he was also hit with a debuff to most of his most critical physical stats, Strength and Agility.

Bright felt weak, but despite this weakness, he climbed to his feet, out from under the ruined car, and took refuge under, using the copious amount of grass and vines to hide from the chasing machines.

On his feet, Bright looked around and noted the strange appearance of the city's...inskirts? That surrounded the Dome and 'Park.' The city, at first glance, appeared futuristic. However, there were some buildings that did not seem to belong; one such building looked to be a building straight from a Steampunk's dream—featuring a lot of oxidized green copper, pipes, and strange machines or apparatuses covering the building.

Another example of the city's strange appearance was what looked to be a collapsed wooden...cabin placed in what looked like what had once been an alleyway. It was as if the city were a giant tattered blanket that had patches of it replaced and stitched together with new cloth of a different color and style to patch a hole.

Bright's curiosity only grew as he traveled along the city's edge towards where he split off from his expedition, coming across more examples of 'holes' being filled with something else, buildings, vehicles, even entire streets. It was a hodgepodge of architectural styles, ages, and materials. 

Bright even saw what looked like a marble temple built in the style of the Romans, though this temple was very clearly dilapidated and looked even older than the city around it.

It was all so strange to Bright's eyes.

When Bright reached where he separated from his expedition, there were few signs left of where they could have gone; the only real signs of where they had gone were the carnage wrought by the machines that chased after them. Following the trail of crushed cars and ruin, Bright began noticing the carcasses of several machines as he progressed, though strangely, the machines were not destroyed the way Bright and the others had been using to disable the machines.

Instead, it looked as if some kind of energy weapons had struck the machines, as the metal plating of the machines was scorched and melted in several specific spots across the chassis. His expedition did not do the damage, but if it was not them, who or what destroyed these machines? Left with more questions than answers, Bright continued on, ever moving forward, finding more and more destroyed machines and several dead members of his expedition who were not fast enough, but about three miles in, Bright found that the tracks ended, no traces remaining of where his expedition could have gone.

Yet, above him in the buildings around him, several figures watched Bright.