The Kingdom of the Malaise (6)

'What the hell was that about'

I was currently looking up the stone ceiling of the prison that I was stuck in, pondering about life...

Again...

After staring at the purplish armor that was of the same hue as the monsters they were made from for an unknown amount of time.

I had painstakingly torn my gaze away from the armor that was peacefully resting on top of the iron anvil.

The memory of the magical formation of the armor still ingrained in my mind.

And in the present time I was staring at the sync rate that was presented to me in the familiar grey screen.

After making the rest of the armor set and watching the magical clay move through the air and manipulate the armor into existence, putting the entire set into my inventory.

I had than laid down on the ground and called the sync screen.

Which was why I was on the ground pondering about life.

[Dead Cells - 30%]

[Terraria - 40%]

[Minecraft - 31%]

Staring at the sync rate, particularly the Terraria one that had risen substantially from the pitiful sight it was when I first arrived in this world.

Questions inevitably rose in my mind.

'...Why did it rise?'

From the pattern I had witnessed, the sync rate usually signaled me whenever I fulfilled a certain objective to go past every ten percent.

The rising of percent was just me developing the things I had unlocked so that I could progress in the world, my powers developing on the unlocked functions.

However, for seemingly no reason at all I suddenly gained a new function to my powers when I breached 40%.

And it didn't seem to be a concretely useful one and was rather... esoteric to say the least.

Unlike how I unlocked a map function, crafting menu, accessories bar among other things this one had no immediately discernable function.

Opening the inventory with a wave of the hand I stared at the three icons within it and stared at the purple armors that were resting within their places on the grid shaped inventory.

'God' Running my hands through my hair, I ruffled it and got up from the cold hard ground. 'This is confusing'

But than again... I had died several times by now, I guess reviving several times has the right to be confusing.

Keeping the inventory up I looked at the equipment bar that had been opened some time ago but hadn't been filled.

I took in a deep breath and equipped the armors.

There was no fanfare that happened in result to my actions, in fact it was rather instantaneous.

As if they had always been on my body, purplish armor suddenly manifested on top of my body.

Feeling the sudden weight appear on my body I blinked at the sudden cool sensation that covered my body.

'Would you look at that' Bringing my hands up and admiring the hand that was clad in Purple Demonite metal, the intricate parts that made up the gauntlet shifting as I moved my hand.

'It's surprisingly light'

Moving my body around, I admired my armor clad form as I did simple stretches to test the range of dexterity I had over my body.

Moving my body around I realized a few things about this armor.

It might've as well not have been on my body at all because the difference was so miniscule that it was hard to notice.

That was because the the armor which was called the Shadow Armor in it's proper name went against conventional logic.

Acting no different from the clothes I occasionally used to look cool in front of others, the armor felt as light as normal clothes.

The range of movement I had available in the armor was also surprising as I thought that it would limit mobility in favor of defense.

That wasn't to say that the armor was weak as it was made out of a rather powerful material, but it's durability in battle would have to be seen.

Clasping my armor clad hand I looked up at the door that was closed and opened the map.

I was going to hunt tonight.

---

Cherry let out a small sigh escape her lips as she readied her bow, feeling the force of the steel string pull against her metallic gauntlets.

Loosing the arrow the arrow flew through the air and pierced the gaps of a metallic helmet, the creature the helmet belonged to not falling as the arrow dug into it's head.

Turning to find the source of it's wound, the creature let out a growl from beneath the helmet and found Cherry.

Seeing that it had noticed her, Cherry only had a few moments of time before it fell upon her.

Teleporting from it's place far away from her, it suddenly appeared in front of her descending blade.

Flustered the monster brought up it's swords for hands, the orange colored blades that were emanating a tangible heat barely blocked the descending broadsword.

"GrrR!?"

Tensing it's muscles that were strengthened by the malaise it tried to push the heavy blade away with prodigious strength.

"Not today you bastard"

Clenching her hands that were wrapped around the hilt of the sword, runes lining the edges of the blade suddenly lit up and caused the blade to become heavier by several times.

Without a moment to spare after the runes were activated, the monster with an arrow sticking out of it's head collapsed into two halves.

Sighing Cherry deactivated the runes and let out a sigh as she looked at the corpse.

Staring at the corpse for a few moments, a myriad of thoughts rang through her mind.

'Since he's here now I guess things will start ramping up again since a hundred loops ago.'

Dragging the broadsword out of the corpse, Cherry hefted it upwards and locked it against her back.

"Hup!"

If Slade was here he would've been surprised to see a visible cut mark in the prodigious stone work that he could only make a few marks with a pickaxe that was augmented by his game system.

'Not that it was dangerous enough as is'

Freeing both her hands, she calmly picked up the bow from the ground and hooked it against her back, alongside the blue broadsword.

Taking out a knife that was hidden in her thigh she crouched and started to slice bits of flesh off of the monster.

Ignoring the guts, blood and bone fragments that were sticking to her gauntlet.

She moved her gaze to the two blades for hands that the monster used to fight that were already half it's size.

Hesitating for a moment she clenched the knife and began sawing off the giant heated blades.

Grabbing the two blades off the ground and placing them in a small leather pouch that was hanging off her belt, the large hands disappeared into the unproportionally small bag. 

Looking up she looked at the corpse for a moment before glancing at the sky that was filled with a myriad of small infested beings she sighed.

'Hopefully this one survives a much longer time without going insane from the excessive deaths'

Looking back down, with an unthinkable amount of quietness that was unsuited for the heavy metal armor she wore she slinked off into the darkness.

Hiding in the shadows cast by the stars and moon.

'The stars seem bright tonight, I wonder why?'

Sneaking into the darkness of the island, she snuck through the dirt paths navigating through the hoards of infected monsters that roamed through the island.

'I should get out of here and tell the others about him'

Looking around a cold look rose on her face.

'No place on this cursed island ever stays safe'

---

All over the infected island of the malaise, people in strange garbs used a myriad of weapons to tear apart the hoards of malaise infected monsters that now inhabited the island.

Much like Cherry was slinking around the island in heavy metal armor, brandishing the giant broadsword with a single hand with ease.

Pronouncing death on the already dead, others did the same.

A short lizard like figure spun around while carrying an oversized bag on their back, the two eyes on their head acting like swivels as the green eyes saw everything.

Spinning a short metal spear in their hands, they threw the spear and caused it to sink into a giant purple shelled scorpions head.

Quickly pulling the string that the spear it was attached to they caught the spear mid air and brandished it again, the bright orange cloth fluttering as it moved.

A strange duo of human beings wielded a large pair of scissors and a spiked comb respectively.

The tall bearded man jumping around as he grabbed the pins at his thigh and caused them to pierce a large flailing mushroom that was using it's roots as weapons.

The much smaller girl that was using the comb as a weapon in comparison, grabbed the comb with both hands and caused it to pierce through many of the much smaller moving mushrooms.

The many spikes on the comb gaining many an unfriendly foe.

A beetle like figure brought their hands above their horned head as a pale green flame burned in their hands.

Throwing the flame, the darkness that surrounded them disappeared as it revealed the myriads of monsters that called the darkness their home.

Seeing that they were dangerously near, they grabbed a long glaive like weapon that was embedded in the floor.

Spinning it around, the green flame that they had casted suddenly appearing on the tip of the blade.

The surroundings now awash with a ghostly green glow.

A large fat figure sat by themselves at the ends of a port, all clad in a striped white and blue shirt, the hood of a yellow overcoat covering their head.

All that could be seen in the unnatural darkness that hid in the hood was a glowing pink eye as they crossed their blue arms.

Looking at a giant skeleton in black clothes and all clad in chains brandishing a long black sword, the eye underneath the hood narrowed.

Spotting it's enemy the skeleton ran forwards without regards to it's surroundings, barreling through various wooden obstacles in it's way.

Only to get impaled by a long tentacle that the fat figure revealed to have hidden underneath their clothes.

Flinging the corpse off the tentacle the fat figure grabbed a fish and lowered it into it's face.

Despite all of them doing their own thing, a bright light suddenly rose from the middle of the mountains.

The eye catching orange light rising from the mountains and washing the entire island in it's light.

Looking at the bright light that washed the entire island in it's orange light, without a doubt that all of the islands above ground inhabitants had witnessed the light.

+++

Hello there

Tree