4th Floor
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[Welcome to the 4th Floor, the Wasteland]
[Your Inventory is inaccessible until you clear the Floor]
[The 4th Floor is a group Floor, you will be randomly teamed up with other areas]
[Quest: Survive]
[Description: The Wasteland is a post-apocalyptic world. Everything is radiated and poisonous, to make it worse, life has mutated into ferocious creatures. The few survivors left have all become insane and barbaric. Survive for 7 days.]
[Rewards: 100 Silver coins, low-level armor]
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"Fuck you, Urman. You could have added that I shouldn't put my weapon in the Inventory, I was almost stranded in a desert full of monsters without a weapon"
"Maybe I should make it a habit not to put my spear in the Inventory and always carry it with me. I got lucky this time and was still carrying it with me"
Orthis stood under the scorching sun in a desert that seemed to stretch on forever. There was absolutely nothing in sight except sand and monsters.
"Wait, monsters? I seriously need a way to detect these things"
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[Mutant]
[Strength: 6]
[Endurance: 8]
[Agility: 8]
[Mind: 1]
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"These things are a bit stronger than the Goblin Chief before he evolved"
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[World-Eater Spear absorbed a Mutant, Strength +0,0003, Endurance +0,0004, Agility +0,0006, Mind +0,000001]
[Your resistance to Fire and Radiation increased slightly]
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"The stats are so small that they might as well be non-existent but the increase in resistance is very good, even if it's just a slight increase, there should be a lot of these things on this floor.
On this floor, resistance to fire and subsequently heat is extremely important, I just hope I don't get any more weird traits like last time" he couldn't help but shudder at the thought
Just as Orthis' resistance to fire increased, so did the World-Eater's. They shared most of their growth, like when Orthis' Fire Affinity increased, so did the spear's. The only time it didn't gain something was when Orthis got his first weird trait.
Orthis started walking in a random direction while killing all the mutants he encountered. He could already feel the heat growing weaker, no doubt the effect of his increasing fire resistance. After an hour of walking under the sun, he should have been sweating rivers but here he was, leisurely walking around.
*WROOM*
"Huh? Cars? Is it the survivors or the climbers?"
As the cars approached, Orthis began seeing them better. The cars were clustered together from scraps, each car carried at least two mutated humanoids. The humanoids only wore clothes that covered the necessities and left the rest bare for the world to see their impressive muscles and deformities.
"The fact that they can make working cars from these scraps suggests that they must be pretty skilled. You really shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Maybe I can bring them to teach me some mechanics." Orthis thought
The cars stopped not far from Orthis and a large man wearing ornamental bones. His right arm was three times as thick as a normal arm while his left arm was more befitting to a child.
"Dentist, do you want to come potatoes? We have the shiniest meat bicycles" the big-armed leader yelled
"Dentist? Potatoes? Meat Bicycles? The quest wasn't lying when it said the survivor went insane"
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[Insight: Stranger, do you want to come with us? We have food and drinks]
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"Huh, I didn't know Insight could be used to translate crazy. You learn more every day" he thought amazed at his own talent
"Sure, I would love to. I'm Orthis by the way" he happily accepted their invitation. They might be insane but he could still understand them and they seemed very nice if you got past the skeletons hanging from the cars.
"I am Bone Licker. Come aboard, we shall fly to Nimmerland before it defecates"
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[Insight: I am Bone Licker. Get on, we will return to the base before it gets dark]
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"Alright" It was pretty amusing to see them be crazy when you could fully understand them, the contrast between what they said and what they meant. That way it felt more like they had a speech problem than insanity but he knew better.
During the ride, he chatted a bit with Bone Licker, asking questions about what the apocalypse was and if they could teach him mechanics. Licker found the questions odd, even odder than what his idiot subordinates asked, but he was happy that he had someone to talk to who could fully understand him.
He also learned that not everyone spoke nonsense like their leader, most were just savages and didn't like to speak unless it was about blood and murder.
They finally arrived at their camp after driving through the desert for hours. It was what you would expect from a survivor camp if the survivors were all insane. Skulls were used to decorate and drink from, bones were lying all over the ground, the smell of blood was stuck in the air, and all constructs were made from metal scraps and remains of hunted mutants.
While it was repulsing to a civilized man like him, they did what they had to do to survive. He couldn't blame them for using the only materials they could get their hands on.
Orthis was invited to a meal but refused, saying he wasn't hungry and looked for a place to sleep the night. He saw them drink blood from skulls and he didn't even want to know what meat they were eating, even in the best-case scenario that the meat was from a mutant, he didn't want to eat it.
Over the last few hours, Orthis learned two important things.
1-From what his Insight told him, a day circle on this floor was 26 hours and it would increase the higher he went.
2-As long as his spear kills enough enemies, it can prevent him from dying from hunger. It didn't feed him or anything, it just made him hunger more without dying from starvation. If he relied on this function for too long without eating anything, he would become nothing more than a skeleton, barely even capable of movement.
You could tell their meal ended as soon as their screams grew quitter. They worked under the scorching sun all day and after a nice meal, they all went to bed to repeat the same thing the next morning.
Despite having strong resistance against heat and not having worked nearly as hard as the survivors, Orthis soon followed them to the dreamlands.
He was woken up before the sun even rose by a female survivor who like everyone here was barely clothed.
"Come. Work. No Sun" she grunted and left.
Orthis wasn't taken in without his own share of responsibilities and jobs around the camp. The survivors woke up before sunrise to get as much work done before the heat began. Orthis requested to work with machines, so he was made to repair some cars and other machinery.
In the beginning, he had absolutely 0 clue about what he was supposed to do, they just assumed he knew how to handle machines since he asked, but after watching his colleagues and asking a few questions, he quickly began to learn.
In just half a day, he was as good at repairing as the survivors who had been studying for over a year, by the time the sun was going down again, he was almost as good as the survivor in charge of the machinery who had been doing this job for several years.
With the sunset, the group that left the camp this morning returned injured and with significantly fewer members and cars.
"What happened?" Orthis asked Bone Licker
"Communists started playing chess because they learned how to dance"
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[Insight: Another camp ambushed us, they recruited several powerful survivors from somewhere]
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Orthis already knew that there were several camps and that they had a somewhat difficult relationship since they all competed for limited supplies but they wouldn't just ambush each other for no reason. The powerful survivors also caught his attention, it was very likely that they were the other climbers who came to this floor with him.
"Why did they attack you, the most they could have gained was a few cars"
"The sugarcane above the bloody sun"
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[Insight: They are after our camp's treasure]
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"Treasure? What are you talking about?" Orthis asked confused, was there anything more valuable here than metal scraps?
"Death got diarrhea when he saw us. My dick is so long that I often trip over it"
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[Insight: It is said that it is the reason why our camp has the least mutations. The treasure is inside the Blood Dome but only the winner can touch it]
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Orthis knew about the Blood Dome, it was an arena for death battles. The battles can be fought for all kinds of reasons, the right to have a woman, more food, a grudge or simply to prove you're the strongest. It was a very bloody and brutal fight without weapons and it was a spectacle every time it took place.
"When is the next Blood Dome? I would like to participate" He had not forgotten his lack of fighting skill without a spear but the mutated humanoids had slightly weaker stats than him and would be a good opportunity to make up for this weakness.
Bone Licker just grinned when he heard him, grabbed his arm, and began dragging him to the dome while shouting.
"BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOD" For once, he was saying exactly what he meant
Not even seconds later, people hurried to them and began chanting too
"BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOD"
Soon they arrived at a dome made of bones, metal, and wood covered with leftover blood from previous fights. They pushed him into the dome and surrounded the dome to watch the spectacle.
Orthis saw a blue gem embedded into the structure of the dome and couldn't help but curse when saw the description
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[Item: Healing Gem]
[Description: One of six gems lost in the desert long ago, this one has weak healing powers]
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"Are you kidding me? First Odin on the last floor, now there was this guy too? Don't tell me every god lost something on every floor." Orthis cursed as he saw the hidden truth his Insight gave him.
"I know my mythology and that this is a desert but this is just too much"
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[Insight: This is one of the six fragments of Horus' Eye that Seth scattered across the desert. It lost its connection to him after Hathor restored his eye but it still holds some of his power]
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"I don't know what I can use this for but I want it, unlike Odin's eye, I can safely use it" he thought
"Listen up! I fight for the right to claim this gem!" he shouted, announcing his price should he survive
The crowd grew silent hearing that. They thought the newcomer just wanted a woman or more food, they never expected him to want their treasure.
"If ya kiddo wanna take thy blinky, yo havte stomp the leade ánd anon els wo wats to fight ye"
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[Insight: If you want the gem, you have to win against the leader and anyone else who wants to fight you]
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That's understandable, by the rules the winner could get everything he declared his price beforehand, even the position as a leader. Since he wanted their treasure, he would have to face the clan's leader and anyone who didn't want him to take the gem.
"I understand, now get in here, you tapeworms!" he shouted for his opponents to enter.
The crowd began cheering again as his first opponent entered. It was a female survivor with a metal jaw and screws all over her body. She didn't hesitate to throw the first punch and went right for his balls.
Orthis was a bit stunned by the viciousness but was able to dodge thanks to his high agility stat. She was a lot more aggressive and experienced but he was stronger and a fast learner.
They fought for a few minutes until Orthis got in a good hit, breaking her ribs and piercing her lungs. The crowd cheered at the first death and the next contestant entered the arena.
(5 hours later)
The bodies started piling up on the ground, if one looked closely one could see that the bodies looked more and more like a wild animal attacked them. Survivors didn't use martial arts as they were too flashy and non-lethal, they focused on being as deadly as possible.
There was no friendly sparing in the Wasteland, people learned to fight while struggling to survive against monsters or other survivors. As time passed, Orthis learned from them and now fought like a wild beast.
He rarely used his fists and preferred to hold his hands open, allowing him to kill or cripple his opponents with his fingertips as he pierced them through their ribs into their heart or their eyes and throat. This only worked when his durability was about the same as his opponent's, if it was lower he had to return to the basic form to inflict blunt damage.
It was a vicious but effective form of fighting specialized in surviving by ending your opponent as fast as possible while receiving the least damage.
"And for the last opponent of the day, our amazing leader, BONE LICKER!" some dude who declared himself a commentator announced.
"Will the bloodthirsty newcomer win his prize or will he be just another skeleton in the desert?"
Orthis would have liked to retort the bloodthirsty part but he was too tired from fighting for his life for 5 hours and he was covered in blood from head to toe. Even with his high endurance, fighting for so long was exhausting and since he wasn't using his spear to kill, he couldn't make a fast recovery either.
Bone Licker didn't give him time to take a breath either as he fell the audience, ready to crush Orthis' skull in one attack. He barely managed to jump away as the giant disproportioned arm formed a small crater on the ground.
"Can't you give me a small pause, I can barely even stand from exhaustion"
"I will paint my walls red with your poop" his enemy screamed as he charged at him for another attack
Orthis didn't have time to check the translation but he did remember the status he saw yesterday when he inspected Blood Licker.
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[Blood Licker]
[Strength: 14]
[Endurance: 12]
[Agility: 8]
[Mind: 3]
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His strength and endurance stats were higher than his, he couldn't afford to get hit or make this into a battle of endurance.
Unlike the other survivors, Blood Licker fought more like a generic martial artist but instead of discipline, he relied on his giant arm that was enhanced significantly due to mutation. This also gave him the weakness that he only fought using one arm, so as long as Orthis remained on the side of his toothpick-like arm, he would be fine.
After a few minutes of dodging and remaining on his opponent's weak left side, Orthis saw a chance to win and took it. With one swift and precise motion, he dug his left hand into Blood Licker's left eye, making him scream in pain and swing his strong right at him.
Orthis jumped aside but the overly large arm still hit his right ribs, breaking at least three of them. Some would say he got the worse injury, and he did, but he managed to create a permanent blind spot he could use.
Both fighters gritted their teeth and went back into combat, wanting to end this as fast as possible.
Despite the pain, Orthis managed to keep going and finally managed to land a strong hit on his opponent's spine, making his legs almost give out under his own weight.
From then on it got easier, Blood Licker's attacks grew slower and weaker while Orthis remained in his blind spot, repeatedly delivering heavy hits to his spine.
Finally, after the sixth hit, the vertebrae he had been targeting shattered and Blood Licker fell to the ground with his lower body paralyzed. With his last strength, Orthis kicked his opponent in the head, leaving his vital status unknown. Showing mercy was a sign of weakness and was heavily looked down upon amongst survivors, the least he could do was deliver an attack that had a 50-50 chance of killing him.
"I won and by the rules, I claim the right to possess the gem!" Orthis shouted with his last strength. He couldn't allow himself to show weakness now.
"WE HAVE A WINNER!" the self-proclaimed commentator declared
Next Orthis had to climb up the dome to claim his prize but that wasn't easy with broken ribs, at least his endurance dampened the pain and was slowly healing. It was so slow that a full recovery would take days but at least it stopped the rib fragments from piercing his lung.
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[You have obtained the right to take the Healing Gem]
[The Healing Gem is restoring your injuries]
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The moment Orthis touched the blue gem, two messages popped up and his wounds began to heal. It wasn't instant but at least now it would only take a few hours to heal his ribs.
"Does this mean that the Healing Gem wouldn't have worked on me if I didn't obtain the right to take it?" he mused.
He was pretty sure that he wasn't going about this floor like a regular climber would. While others struggled to survive under the endless sun, he fought a mutated chief that was way above the level of a climber on the 4th Floor.
While obtaining the Healing Gem was undoubtedly good, the constant fighting had made him even more thirsty than he already was.
The survivors didn't care too much about the gem or the unknown status of their boss as they began preparing a feast to celebrate. During the feast, Orthis finally broke and gave in to his thirst and drank litters of blood out of hollowed-out skulls.
"It tastes strangely metallic but it's not as bad as I expected but that might be my thirst speaking. It certainly won't become my regular beverage either, I'm just doing this to survive" Orthis tried to convince himself, he deliberately didn't ask what blood this was as no answer would allow him to sleep at night.
He still couldn't bring himself to eat whatever meat that was, his hunger wasn't that bad just yet.
"The Tower is cruel. It's like a training ground made to make us do anything we need to survive. Everyone who tries to climb it will be broken and rebuilt stronger than before" he sighed mentally
As the winner of the Blood Dome, he was the main star of the party and the women surrounded him. This was the truth of the Wasteland survivors, they followed the law of evolution. Every survivor was sapiosexual, meaning attracted to the strong.
It was just nature but modern humans lost these instincts due to the peaceful environment and changed their standards for a mate to superficial things. Orthis didn't see a reason to refuse and selected one of the more humanoid women and brought her to his tent.
That night, his tent wasn't the only one to participate in sexual activities, modesty was a foreign concept and most survivors hooked up randomly. If a woman got the favor of a strong man or vice versa, good for them, they had the chance to birth a strong offspring, for those that didn't get a strong partner, they just looked for someone else to scratch the itch.
Orthis woke up the next day to an empty bed, not surprisingly, unlike the survivors he wasn't a morning person. He was initially worried about the weird trait he got from the Goblin Lord but Insight calmed him down.
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[Insight: The 4th Floor, like most other Floors, is a reality-altering simulation. Once you leave the Floor, everything will reset, including your actions. The only Floor so far that was not a simulation was Floor 2]
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"That's good, that means everything will be like I was never here before the fertilized egg even reached the uterus"
He wasn't against having kids but not here, not now, and definitely not with a random mutated savage from the Wasteland. He would have used condoms but not only could he not access his Inventory, he didn't even have any condoms in his Inventory.
"I definitely need to get some condoms on the next community floor or look for a contraception spell once I learn magic"
After getting dressed, he headed back to the workshop to continue practicing his mechanical skills. He wouldn't be able to build a rocket anytime soon but repairing and even building a car was no longer off the table.
Since his broken ribs already healed overnight, he did his orders extra fast today so that he could use the remaining time to study some masks to learn electronics. Almost every survivor had their own mask to protect them from pollution, toxins, and sand, some even came with visual assistance.
Hours later, his peaceful self-study time was interrupted by the sound of the camp alarm. That could mean anything from a sandstorm to a powerful mutant attacking but everyone was trained to grab their weapon and guard the wall with their life.
If it was a sandstorm they could always seek shelter afterward but if they didn't respond to an attack, they would no longer be called survivors. Orthis was now a part of the camp, so he followed but he had no intention of risking his life like the others.
"Grab ya wepons, ya sandroaches. A camp is attaging and dey got the weird muties with'em" the pirate-like survivor yelled
And it was true, Orthis could make out a big group of cars in the distance, including some of the cars that were stolen yesterday.
"Why are they here? As far as I know, camps don't normally attack each other, could it have something to do with the other survivors?" Orthis thought confused
"But why would they want to attack another camp? Shouldn't they be more focused on staying alive for the next four days?" then he had a thought "Could it be?"
He needed to confirm it, so he turned to the woman next to him who just so happened to be the one he spent the night with. She was called Defiler and defiled he was last night indeed but that wasn't the time.
"Defiler, do the other camps also have gems?"
"Gem? Yeah but not as great as ours, Defiler meant to say yours"
Orthis didn't bother thinking about why she was speaking of herself in the third person, his mind was too occupied with something else right now.
"That means they most likely know of the gems, even if it's not their real purpose. Since I won the right to claim it by conquest, does that mean they can do the same if they destroy this camp?" his mind was racing like never before
"This also means they have at least one other fragment. I wasn't planning on searching for the other since the Healing Gem was enough for me but since they are bringing it to me, I won't refuse their gift" he grinned and got battle-ready
It's been days already since he last killed something with World-Eater and they were both craving for blood and the growth it brought with it.
As soon as the enemy camp was within fire range, the arrows and sharp iron scraps started flying from one side to another. Bullets were rare and not reusable while scraps and arrows could be made easily.
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[World-Eater Spear absorbed a Mutated Survivor, Strength +0,005, Endurance +0,007, Agility +0,004, Mind +0,0008]
[World-Eater Spear absorbed a Mutated Survivor, Strength +0,007, Endurance +0,006, Agility +0,009, Mind +0,002, Trait: Cell Mutation]
[Your cells are starting to mutate]
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With the first blood of the battle came growth and evolution. Orthis was a bit concerned about the message that his cells were mutating but he didn't have the time to look at it, all he could do now was pray he wouldn't become a grotesque monster like many other survivors.
After killing a few dozen enemy survivors, he finally saw a being that was so out of place that it could only be a climber from a different race. That climber looked like a bipedal cockroach with strong legs and two pairs of arms standing in opposing directions.
The alien climber also noticed him and charged at him.
"I don't know why you are attacking this camp but it was the last mistake you will ever make" Orthis said as he met its charge. He knew it could understand him due to the Tower translating nearly any language but it simply chose not to respond.
The cockroach was strong, way stronger than any human on the 4th Floor could be, maybe even stronger than Blood Licker but now that he had his spear, he was confident he could take it on.
Their following clashes showed Orthis just how weak humans were compared to other races of the Tower, even after evolving into their Tower variant. To add insult to injury, even after Orthis pierced the climber's head, it was still alive somewhat.
"Most races have special traits, this one seems to share the tenancy with their smaller version. Humans really are at the bottom of the Cosmic food chain, aren't we?" he thought as he cut apart the climber's body several times.
This was the sad truth, humans weren't special, many races in the Tower were born with the strength of an elite-trained human adult. Don't believe what some humans say about the human spirit, wisdom, and imagination, that's all just a lie to make themselves feel better.
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[World-Eater Spear absorbed an Urklavic climber, Strength +0,4, Endurance +1,102, Agility +0,372, Mind +0,6, Trait: Tenancy]
[Your tenancy has increased a lot]
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"Wow, this was without a doubt the best gain I got so far, a whole stat point AND its racial trait" he said astonished.
He could feel how his body was changing, the entire way his endurance stat was built was changing. So far it mostly only increased durability, stamina, and regeneration but now his tenancy would grow with it. He could now survive for a minute if someone decided to stab his heart and the extent would only grow as the stats rose.
"I wonder if there are any other climbers amongst the group" he mused and continued killing survivors left and right in hopes of finding someone else out of place.
The battle was growing more heated with casualties racking up on both sides, to make it worse, Blood Licker was still heavily injured from last night's fight. Yes, he did survive.
Finally, Orthis saw a survivor fly over his head and looked in the direction he came from. A group of survivors was ganging up on a three-meter-tall living rock and were still getting their asses handed to them.
That climber had an eerie resemblance to Korg from Marvel but he might also just be horrible at discerning faces of other races.
With one strong jump, Orthis leaped over the survivors and swung his spear at the rock guy, barely leaving a mild wound. He couldn't help but sigh at the repeated reminder of how weak humans were, even the cockroach guy got some serious injuries from a direct hit on the head with World-Eater.
Rocky grunted in pain and turned around but other than that, his attack had no effect. In addition to being super durable, Rocky also showed amazing strength as he smashed a deep pit where Orthis stood a second ago.
"The durability is understandable given that he is made of rocks but where does the strength come from, as far as I can tell he is completely made of rocks with no muscles or veins, how does a non-carbon lifeform even operate?" Orthis pondered as he was slowly chipping away at his opponent's rocky body.
He might not have been a biologist but he had enough knowledge that he knew every lifeform needed some form of organ but this guy seemed to be made of rocks through and through, raising many questions on how he was even alive.
After several minutes of hacking the guy to pieces, his body finally collapsed after being damaged too much. It would have been a lot faster if Orthis knew some basics of how their bodies worked but he didn't.
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[World-Eater Spear absorbed a lesser Earth Giant, Strength +0,06, Endurance +0,9, Agility +0,2, Mind +0,05]
[Your Earth Affinity increased]
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"Also a good haul but not as good as the one from the cockroach. I would have preferred whatever made him so hard instead of some affinity but who knows if it might have turned me to stone. At least my Spear Mastery increased nicely after using this guy as a whetstone"
After killing the last few enemies that were trying to escape after seeing they had lost, the remaining survivors burst out in cheers, they had lost many but they survived and gained all the other camp's supplies.
Everyone got to choose a spoil from a pile, Orthis put his eye on two gems. He wasn't the only one but seeing Orthis eye them as well, they made the wise decision to choose something else, at least that would be more useful in the Wasteland than two nice-looking gems.
Orthis didn't think so, he didn't consider staying in the Wasteland for long and his biggest concern was food. As he has learned, not all races shared this concern, both the climbers he killed seemed pretty fine living without any supplies for a long time.
The two gems however were a good find, from the few captured survivors, he learned that one gem was their camp's treasure while the other belonged to a camp they destroyed not long ago after the two climbers joined them.
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[Item: Royal Gem]
[Description: One of six gems lost in the desert long ago, this one has the authority of a king]
[Insight: Holding this fragment negates the requirements to obtain the other fragments]
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"This is good, at least now I no longer have to fight in a brutal battle for hours to obtain the right to take a gem"
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[Item: Sky Gem]
[Description: One of six gems lost in the desert long ago, this one has the power of the sky]
[Insight: This gem doesn't have a special power, it's just a gem with an extremely high affinity to the sky and anything related to it. Can be used for magic and enchantments]
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"Well, they can't all have passive effects. At least it marks the halfway mark to obtaining the complete eye. I wonder where the rest are, time is running out"
The chances that he would find the remaining three fragments somewhere in the desert were slim to none, the fact that three camps found them for him already bordered a miracle.
Casualties were normal in the Wasteland and no time was wasted mourning the dead, there was a small victory celebration but this time Orthis didn't participate, he rather used his time doing something productive like studying electronics.
The night passed without any attacks and the fourth day began.
"This is getting nowhere, I already studied all cars and masks, and know the blueprint to every single one of their functions. I can now build radios and air filters from scrap metals, which is good but not that useful. I need new things, maybe there are some ruins around from the age before the apocalypse."
And so Orthis began asking everyone in the camp if they knew of a place that wasn't a desert or camp. It had no success so far but it was a better try than to steal a car and wander the desert aimlessly.
Finally, there was one of the rare older survivors in the camp that knew something. Apparently, there was an old city two days by car away from here. He didn't know anything about the city except that it was made of metal and no one ever returned from it.
"A metal city no one ever returned from, sounds promising. I bet I can find some awesome technology and secrets there" he rejoiced
It was already noon and the heat was at its peak but the journey would take a while and if he didn't set out right now, he might not have much time left when he actually found the city.
So he did what any normal person would do, he stole the camp's fastest car and went in the direction of the city. Naturally, the camp wasn't happy about having their car stolen and chased after him for a while before they gave up. Their cars made for war couldn't keep up with their fastest car.
Orthis drove across the desert for a long time without stopping, his endurance allowed him to stay awake for a long time without facing consequences, all he had to watch out for were occasional mutants.
The sun went up again and the fifth day began.
"I will reach the city today provided that old guy gave me the right direction and didn't lie to me. On the other hand, I don't know for how much longer I can hold on, I haven't eaten anything for days and the mutants are beginning to look more and more delicious." He thought with slight desperation.
He would do it if he had to but he would go on for as long as possible without and he was reaching that limit.
Under the scorching noon sun, he finally broke for the second time on the floor and did what he never thought he was capable of before, he ate a mutant to still his hunger.
"Fuck, this tastes like crap but better than becoming a walking skeleton" he cursed.
He was already very skinny after he had grown so much in a short time but now he lost probably about 10 kilos in just five days and looked like a starved ghost. After eating two cow-sized mutants down to the bones, he continued his journey.
By the time the sun was setting, he finally spotted a few high structures in the far. Before he could rejoice, a message alerted him.
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[Insight: A scout unit is laying in ambush 43 meters away from here. Proceed with caution]
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"Scout unit? That sounds like a machine" Orthis pondered but continued driving nonetheless.
When he came within a few meters of the spot where the robot was supposed to be, he stopped trying to spot anything. He didn't see anything but a mechanic voice told him he was not alone.
"Observation: Life form entered city parameters. Objective: Eliminate all invading life"
Before his eyes, a small spider-like robot appeared out of nowhere, pointing the two small miniguns on its back at him. Orthis barely managed to get in cover behind the car before a rain of bullets descended.
After a minute or so, Orthis felt that hiding wasn't going anywhere, he had no idea for how long this thing could shoot or if it had called for backup.
He leaped over the car while spinning his spear to block as many bullets as possible yet no bullet went past his spear.
"Could it be I reached the level where I can block bullets? Is it my Spear Mastery or my agility? I wonder if my current endurance makes me bulletproof" he pondered as he slowly advanced to the small robot.
Despite his high stats, he didn't have the confidence to take on bullets but that was mainly because he had been growing too fast and had no sense of how strong he really was.
"Observation: Target unaffected by standard weaponry. Objection: Requesting bac-" Before it could call for backup, World-Eater found its way between its joints and severed the delicate electronic inside.
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[World-Eater Spear absorbed an MV-3G-K7N scout unit, Strength +0,02, Endurance +0,8, Agility +0,09, Mind +1,4]
[Your Metal Affinity increased slightly]
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"What? World-Eater can actually absorb robots?! This is just too OP."
"It seems that the robots in this city have high mind stats, a perfect place to grind. Not sure what the Metal Affinity is supposed to do but I won't say no to more Affinity"
The city was still a few minutes away but he decided to leave the car and continue on foot, who knew what else was lying in ambush there?
The closer he got to the city, the more robots he encountered. Under the fire of several mechs at once, it was no wonder that he got hit a few times but all he got was some pain and a red spot that disappeared rather quickly.
"That confirms it, I am officially at least partially bulletproof, not to mention that I can follow bullets with my eyes" He was highly impressed by how strong he had become, not too long ago a paper cut could have drawn blood from him and here he was, resisting bullets with his body.
The moment he stepped into the city, alarms went off everywhere, and robots began appearing one by one. These robots were larger, bigger, and created solely for killing. Their weaponry was a lot heavier than some small scout unit and Orthis learned that the hard way.
*BZZZ*
Before he could even react, a laser cut through his shoulder like butter.
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[Health -9%]
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The heat of the laser cauterized the wound and the adrenaline suppressed the pain, allowing him to immediately jump into cover. Despite having lost visual, the robots didn't give up and began searching, forcing Orthis to constantly change cover.
"Damn, I got too overconfident. I thought I could handle them and rushed straight in" he cursed as he looked at the missing part of his right shoulder.
The wound was burnt black from the heat and the pain was slowly beginning to seep into his mind, but at least the wound was slowly starting to heal but it would take at least a day.
"Fuck, I should have known that there were more than just bullets in this city, otherwise how could climbers from other races not have come here?"
Just when he was cursing his arrogance, the sound of something heavy walking came from not far away. From the sound of it, there was only one robot and it hadn't found him yet.
"Should I risk it? I'm pretty sure I can deal with it when it's alone."
The heavy steps were coming closer and he needed to make a decision now. He could run and find another hiding spot or he could kill it, get stronger, and speed up his healing. The choice was obvious to him.
Orthis jumped out of his cover and ran at the heavily armed robot. The unit immediately noticed the movement and started charging up its laser at Orthis but before it could fire, its laser gun was cut off and before it could call for support, a spearhead found its way into its head.
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[World-Eater Spear absorbed a RH-76B-A96S attack unit, Strength +0,6, Endurance +0,9, Agility +0,1, Mind +1,7, Trait: HUD]
[Your Metal Affinity increased]
[HUD connected with your Talent]
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Unlike the other traits Orthis gained so far, this one was by far the most noticeable. His entire field of view suddenly looked like a very high-tech VR game, displaying information about anything in his view.
"This is amazing, I suddenly feel like I became some sort of cyborg. Sadly it doesn't have too many functions now, I already have a compass and don't need to know the temperature. I don't think part of my brain or eyes were suddenly replaced by implants, so this means the spear was able to change my body in a way that it could simulate an electronic trait" Orthis was getting more and more amazed by his spear, if that was even possible at this point.
"Maybe I can gain more traits by hunting the robots, even if I don't, the increase in stats is just too good to be left behind. After just a few kills my Mind stat almost returned to its peak"
As advanced robots, they all possessed excellent processing and memory functions which were reflected in the large Mind stat gain Orthis got.
Despite being eager to hunt some metal soldiers, it was already getting dark and the robots had undoubtedly better night vision than him, putting him at a major disadvantage. Besides, after days of driving and fighting his mind was tired and his body needed rest to recover.
Whatever happened here made the people run away without even locking their doors, so it was easy to find a bed but Orthis still couldn't sleep properly since he had to always keep an eye open for patrol robots.
The sixth day began and the hole in his shoulder was healing nicely but the recovery left him starving.
"Gotta find something to eat. I can't leave the city to look for mutants unless I want to be spotted again. Let's see if I can find some store with canned food, I hope a futuristic city like this one still has something like canned food."
Orthis spent the next hour sneaking through dark and narrow allies to avoid the robots but he still came across some smaller ones that he quickly destroyed.
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[Trait: HUD gained the Mapping function]
[Trait: HUD gained the Infrared Vision function]
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"The mapping function was a bit useless since I was already provided one by the Tower but maybe it will come in handy in a situation like this where the Tower restricts some of its functions. Since I can now change to Infrared Vision, I finally have a somewhat reliable form of detection"
After destroying over a dozen small robots, Orthis finally found what looked like an old convenience store. Surprisingly, most products were still in almost perfect condition.
"And there is canned food as well, nice. I guess even the future uses canned food and emergency cookies." Orthis started devouring the rations, they weren't good but still better than mutant meat.
"Let's see what's in the newspaper" For some reason, even though most of the city used holograms, this store somehow still sold news on papers.
"Now would you look at this, that's very interesting" Orthis mused as he read the old newspaper.
'Countdown to Project Helios'
'Despite countless successful tests and simulations, experts voice their concerns'
After reading the entire article several times as well as looking at even older newspapers, Orthis came to a conclusion.
"So, they found a stone that was essential a small sun, and decided to turn it into a battery to supply their entire civilization. Clearly, something went wrong and started an apocalypse but I have a feeling that this stone is one of the six fragments."
While there were many things Horus was known for, many believed that as the God of the Sky, his right eye was the Sun and his left eye the Moon.
"Looks like I will have to break into the highest security facility in this city and get my prize. I have no idea what killer machines are positioned there but I better go hunt to increase my stats" he sighed.
His stats were already unnatural for someone on the 4th Floor since normal climbers only started showing real growth once they got their class. There were some exceptions with some rather special races but generally, that was the case for anyone.
No one should be able to survive in this city for long, not to mention get stronger so fast by destroying robots. Orthis was just an anomaly and the worst thing was that he wasn't even seeing a problem with it.
The number of robots in the city gradually began to decrease, at first it was just the small robots used for cleaning and maintenance but soon the robots that fell to the World-Eater grew larger and their functions more dangerous.
"This is getting easier with each machine I destroy. My stats have grown considerably compared to this morning, I gained several traits, and even World-Eater is starting to change"
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[Trait: HUD gained the Scan function]
[Trait: HUD gained the Databank function]
[Your Metal Affinity increased considerably]
[Strength: 16]
[Endurance: 18]
[Agility: 15]
[Mind: 17]
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The Scan does exactly what its name says, it can scan a multitude of things. Most of its functions were weaker than Insight but Scan allowed Orthis to analyze others techniques and movement. This would be very useful in battles of skill.
Databank was just an extra memory storage. It wasn't infinite but it could do some cool things like saving photos and videos.
The most noticeable change however was in World-Eater. The spear had slowly turned into a dark metal. The spear grew heavier, harder, and sharper but it only took on the metallic traits, at its core, it was still made of wood.
"There are many more traits I gained that were integrated into my HUD but they were insignificant, most just being new sensory powers. At least I no longer lack detection methods"
Orthis finally arrived at the high-security building in the middle of the city and most importantly, his new strength gave him the confidence to face whatever was in there, guarding the stone that powered this ghost town.
The moment Orthis stepped through the gate, turrets appeared from the ground and started shooting lasers without hesitation. These were the same lasers that cut through his shoulder yesterday and probably still could but at least he was prepared now and jumped out of the way.
No cover he hid behind lasted more than a few seconds under the fire, forcing Orthis to curse and run circles around the turrets in search of an opening that didn't allow the other turrets to turn him into Swiss cheese.
Despite the turrets' strong firepower, they seemed to lack cooling systems as just a few minutes of continuous shooting, their barrels turned dangerously red and they took a break to cool down, giving Orthis the chance he needed to destroy the turrets.
"Damn, they aren't hard to destroy but the continuous fire is annoying and they cover each other." He said while taking a short break, he could already hear the next wave of killer machines come from the building.
"The AI that controlled everything here must have noticed the turrets going offline and sent a troop to deal with me. I'm surprised it didn't already do that when I was hunting smaller machines but maybe they just weren't important enough to send more advanced machines after me"
The large metal door that was blocking his way into the building opened and nine new machines exited the building. These machines were in a different league compared to anything he faced before.
They were all just two meters tall but they were made from an unknown black metal with golden ornament. They had weapons equipped on every part of their being, ranging from plasma swords to sonic disruptors.
"Yeah, I don't think I will get out of this unharmed. This city really has a thing for making me pay for my arrogance." He said regretfully. He was confident he wouldn't die and that most of the injuries he would get would heal given enough time but he preferred to not get injured at all.
The new robots didn't give him any time to prepare either and immediately started blasting the whole area with sonic disruptors. The most obvious effect was that all windows shattered but anyone standing inside the area of attack will slowly start dying.
The vibrations would gradually rupture internal organs and the bloodstream, even muscles and bones were receiving microscopic damage that would quickly create fatal openings in a fight.
"Fuck" was all Orthis could think of as he swallowed the taste of blood and jumped out of the way of a plasma sword that was coming for his head.
Orthis spent a while just dodging any attack but he was still slowly accumulating wounds as his internals started looking like they were going through a blender. He tried his best to occasionally get in a few hits while dodging but his spear, despite its new sharpness, barely left a scratch.
Minutes passed and both sides were getting used to the other side's way of fighting and adjusting it. The robots no longer looked so majestic and now looked more like they had been mauled by a group of bears but that was in terms of scratches. Orthis on the other hand was bleeding from his pores but he didn't notice it as he was too busy focusing 110% of his brain on staying alive.
He had gradually been learning to dodge and even began to subconsciously create his own fighting style. Very similar to how he used his hands and legs, this fighting style was very risky as it only involved dodging, one slip-up and he would be losing a limb.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the first robot fell as Orthis buried World-Eater in its battery. After the first one fell, their impeccable teamwork started to worsen and the second one fell before they could analyze the situation to work together perfectly with one member missing.
The third and fourth also followed quickly after but now that the pressure on him was decreasing, so was his adrenaline. The pain and fatigue were getting more and more noticeable with each movement and he knew he needed to end this fast before the adrenaline disappeared completely and he would just collapse.
The other five fell rather quickly but he could already hear reinforcements in the far distance he barely even had enough stamina to move a few meters. With his last strength, Orthis made his way into the high-security building to look for a safe place.
Luckily, there were no other robots there but now a very thick and heavy metal door was blocking his way. With one last effort of strength, Orthis looked at his Insight, put the password into the electric lock on the door, crawled into the room, and destroyed the electric lock as the door closed behind him, hopefully stopping anyone from coming in until he recovered or at least woke up.
Just like he predicted, the moment the door shut closed, everything went black. He had neither time to inspect the many notifications, the extremely high-tech room he was in, or the three floating gems inside the many machines.
Orthis woke up with a heavy groan.
The first thing he noticed when he woke up was the large puddle of blood underneath him. Enough blood to kill a normal human several times over.
"Damn, that hurts. Luckily I got Tenancy and the Healing Gem or I would definitely be dead." Orthis examined his body and covered his open wounds with whatever fabric he had left on his body.
After patching himself up as far as he could, he started looking around the room. If this was the usual Orthis, the sight of so many advanced machines would have made him ecstatic but now he was just looking for a first aid kid.
Not far from the door, a small box with a first aid symbol caught his attention.
"Is the first aid sign universal or is the Tower just translating it for me? Doesn't matter right now." Orthis mumbled and crawled over to the box and opened it.
Inside were various things he hadn't seen before but luckily there were instructions on how to use these things. There was only one tool he needed, a small device that stitched wounds, seared them close, and injected pain meds into the wounded area.
The effect was pretty much immediate and Orthis watched in amazement as his original grievous wound was stitched together by organic threads that would decompose in a few days.
"This is amazing. I no longer feel the pain but at the same time don't feel sluggish and the wound now looks like an old scar or burn. I'm definitely taking this thing with me.
That doesn't mean I'm healed thought, it just closed the wound. Let's just stay here for a bit and look at the notifications."
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[Time left: 7h:42m:37s]
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"Holy shit, that means I have been out for almost a day! Whatever, let's just be happy I woke up in the first place." He sighed
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[Spear Mastery gained the sub-skill Dodge]
[You gained the Skill Focus]
[Proficiency: 58%]
[Your body suffered continuous microscopic damage and healed it, Str +1, End +2]
[World-Eater absorbed 9 SK8-J8-55 Juggernaut units, Str + 5, End +6, Agi+3, Min +7]
[Due to prolonged stay in a high radiation area, your cells are mutating even faster]
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"The last one doesn't sound good but… HOLY SHIT!!" The ridiculous increase in stats really shocked Orthis. No matter how little he knew about the stats of others, even he wasn't so dense as to ignore this. He knew very well that the higher the stats, the harder it was to raise them and he just gained 24 of them.
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[Cell Mutation: Cells are stronger than regular ones but at the same time more perceptible to change]
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"I see, this can be both good and bad. There is nothing I can do about that for now, so let's just hope I don't turn into a monster before I find a solution. The source of the radiation is probably this thing" Orthis thought as he looked at one of the gems in the machines that looked like a small sun.
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[Trai: HUD gained many new functions]
[World-Eater completed a form evolution]
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"What?" this left him confused until he looked at the spear in his hand. He didn't even notice its new appearance due to bigger problems. The evolution was just a small one that changed the spear's appearance but didn't give it any new powers, it just looked way cooler and was a bit sharper.
(World-Eater Spear Image)
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[Your Metal Affinity increased significantly]
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"Still no clue what that does but this was the last important message." There were others, like skill proficiency and the mostly useless new HUD functions.
"7 hours left before the Floor ends, let's just get the last three gems and rest till then, it doesn't seem like the AI was concerned with me surviving my previous injuries or it would have long torn down the door."
Using his spear as a support, Orthis slowly made his way to the first gem.
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[Item: Protection Gem]
[Description: One of six gems lost in the desert long ago, this one has the power of protection]
[Insight: This gem is necessary to protect yourself from the Sun Gem's radiation]
[Due to possessing the Royal Gem, you successfully became the Protection Gem's owner]
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"Good thing I didn't start with the miniature sun. At least now I'm no longer exposed to radiation."
After that, he took the other two gems from their container. Orthis was lucky he had the Protection Gem or he would not have survived touching the Sun Gem. The container it was in already isolated most of the heat and radiation, yet just the remains were enough to cause or at least fuel the incident that led to the apocalypse.
Touching the small sun without it would have been suicide.
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[Item: Sun Gem]
[Item: Moon Gem]
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With this, he now had all six fragments of Horus' eye and even if he didn't know what to do with them, it gave him a sense of achievement. Now all he had to do was wait for the counter to hit 0.
As for going back out? Don't be ridiculous, he was safe and had everything he needed, all he needed now was some rest to properly heal.
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[1m:31s left]
[52s left]
[1s left]
[Congratulations on surviving the Wasteland]
[Your actions have permanently changed the 4th Floor]
[Additional rewards will be given for that achievement, please wait]
[Welcome to the 5th Floor, the Labyrinth]
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