The Kingdom of the Malaise (3)

Ignoring my urge to return to look at who was making the voices I hurried on to the small base I had made.

'I have had enough monsters tricking me'

Recalling how I was attracted to crying noises which revealed itself to be a female zombie that looked unlike the other's I shivered.

The Zombie was most likely an elite as it was the one that lopped off my arm before as I let down my guard.

The zombie's before couldn't do that.

But case in point.

The monsters here are very powerful and the Elites seem to have strange powers that made them extremely unique.

The Zombie from before screaming loudly and distorting my sense of balance.

If I wasn't so quick to roll, I would've lost more than an arm.

Shivering slightly as I ran, soon enough I reached the base I had made for myself.

Using the myriads of blue candles that seemed to burn eternally as my light source I found my destination.

Finding a familiar looking wooden door that was surrounded by steel bits, I opened the door slowly.

Seeing nothing behind the door in the armory filled with metal weapons.

I let out a sigh and walked forwards.

Grabbing a few weapons on the way in I closed the door behind me and walked into the prisoner's quarters I had the good fortune of spawning in.

Waving my hand at the giant skeleton tat stared lifelessly at the air all slack jawed, I ignored it and looked at my surroundings.

Currently I had the cold and unfeeling prisoner room look and feel much more lively and welcoming.

Furnaces made out of what little stone I could scrounge up that wasn't somehow invincible lined the walls of the prison.

A small wooden crafting table and crafting bench being left somewhat in the middle of the room.

Making a small campfire that burnt eternally, the walls were marked with several torches that cast a subtle fire light onto the ground.

The shadows dancing as the flames flickered in the night.

Oh yeah, have I told you it's night?

Taking out the doors and barrels from my inventory and stuffing it into the myriad furnaces, the small square and large round furnaces instantly were lit with flames.

Putting the weapons in them so that they could smelt and turn into metal that I could use.

I left the furnaces to cook before walking up to the large metal window that was letting in the moonlight.

Resting my arms on the metal bars I stared through them and let out a cold sigh.

The warmth and healing properties of the camp fire filled my lungs as I stared at the place that was beyond the invincible metal bars.

A large stretch of sea was what greeted me.

The sea tides ebbed onto and off the shore of the island the prison was located on.

And due to the knowledge I had resting in the back of my mind telling me that several other biomes were present on this island.

When compared to the stupid size of the prisoner's quarters I was confident that this island was an incredibly large one.

The only thing that connected the island to the kingdom of the malaise was the large long spanning stone bridge that stretched across the river.

Beyond the bridge where a large being was standing stock still in the middle of the long stone bridge, several upturned carriages and barrels near it was a port town.

And that port town was one that was filled with broken fishing boats, several figures shambling through the yellow lights that permeated the city.

Acting like people.

Yellow lights left the confines of the buildings and acted like guiding beacons in the night as they were the only lights in the darkness.

It would've been beautiful if not for the knowledge that several monsters were roaming near the torch lights and were mostly malaise infected and a green fog rested on the town.

I had hopes that people still lived in the city as the occasional orange torch light was able to be seen flickering in the night but they were quickly doused.

Beyond the large port town that stretched along the coast of the city, several other landmarks entered my eyes.

Besides the long stretch of port town that was on the side of the shores facing the prison island a series of wrecked ships were crashed on the sides of the kingdom's shores..

Pierced by a myriad of sharp stones that jutted out of the landscape, no doubt infected monsters made their home there much like any other infected being in the kingdom.

Besides the shipwrecks and port town, several floating islands made their presence known as golden light seemed to focus on the islands specifically.

Giant stone swords wreathed in carved stone serpents were embedded in the floating islands, floating above what might've been an incredibly large ravine.

Serving as bridges for the two sides of the ravine and floating across the giant drop that fell down to the abyss.

There might've been more to the floating islands, but from my own vantage point it would've been a tall affair to find out more.

Besides the floating islands that were still unnaturally wreathed in golden light above an abyss of darkness, the floating islands that had stone swords embedded in them connected to an incredibly tall mountain.

On top of the tall mountain were incredibly tall spiked clock towers that were connected by a series of bridges between the series of towers.

I could tell they were clock towers thanks to the giant clock that was facing the prisoner's island.

The most eye catching of the land marks that dotted the island however was the tall golden castle that was illuminated even in the dark night and was placed on top of the giant mountain alongside the clock tower.

The shine of the stars reflecting off the pale surface of the Castle that sat on the middle of the mountain, near the peak of it all.

Strangely enough it wasn't sitting on the peak of the tall mountain that overlooked the entirety of the island.

It was instead of an observatory that had a giant telescope open to observe the stars.

Sighing I looked forlornly at the area outside of the prisoner's quarters.

The myriad of monsters lingering on every single one of these places.

I must say that I would really like to leave this place, but I can't.

Recalling the time I accidentally died due to being surrounded by several monsters I chuckled.

At least this time I knew why I was trapped here even though it was still strange.

Imagine my surprise when the screen actually told me the reason.

[The Cursed Kingdom of the Malaise is placed in a time loop that contains the malaise, not that it stopped it of course, to escape the time loop and continue your journey you must eradicate the malaise in the kingdom]

Seeing those words, my mind went blank.

It was the first time that the game system had directly addressed me and it also was a first being placed in a time loop that reset time every few days to make sure the malaise didn't escape.

I shouldn't have been surprised though when I thought about the incredible power that people used in this world.

'I'll just treat it as solving a dead king's grudge'

Shrugging internally, a small ding resounding through my head caused a grin to make it's way to my face.

Bringing up the screen I looked at the sync rates.

[Dead Cells - 33%]

[Terraria - 40%]

[Minecraft - 34%]

Seeing the increasing sync rates that had risen by 2-3% I grinned before looking at what things had been unlocked by the increased sync rate.

Opening the Terrarian game system I looked for what had changed, and it was easy to find as well as it was marked by a flashing white light.

Looking at it I was slightly confused as the part of the screen that was marked by the light wasn't matching the rest of the Terrarian screen in appearance.

But shrugging it off as it was a new function I looked at it.

Focusing my attention on it, a small pop up appeared.

[Map]

Seeing those words my eyes glistened with surprise.

Unable to withstand my curiosity mentally clicked on the strange icon and much like the screens that were opened in front of me but couldn't be seen by everyone else.

The map opened and the door opened as well.

+++

Tree

I underestimated the amount of lore that is in Dead Cells, last time I played I don't think I saw a fucking vampire.