Kingdom of the Malaise (17)

"Ugh..."

A woman stumbled as she caught herself with her long walking stick, using the hard staff as support.

She was a poor sight to see as all the clothes she wore had been reduced to rags, several long white bandages soaked in blood surrounding her abdomen and legs.

"Ha... Ha... Haaa..."

Her breaths came out in long tired gasps as her raggedy leather boots, soaked in and eroded by sea water sunk slightly into the wet sand.

Her name was Annabel.

And she was a pirate.

Known as the scourge of the seas, the Pirate's were known for their skill in maneuvering the waves with both ease and grace although they were also known for their ship attacks and island raids.

Which was why it was confusing.

Coming from a shipwreck that had been stranded on the sea shore, various gashes appeared like tenebrous scars on the ships hull.

Any pirate worth their salt wouldn't have 

But than again...

A giant tentacle appeared from the abyssal deep like a hand of a giant and grabbed the wooden ship hull, the thick coils of flesh crushing the wooden ship in it's grip.

There was little one could do to resist the force of nature.

The woman named Annabel grit her teeth as she used the wooden staff to support her movements, her other hand holding her gut as pain coursed through it.

"God Dammit! Why did we have to meet a Kraken! Fuck!"

A Kraken attack was dangerous enough with a fully equipped fleet of war ships, not to say a severely damaged ship like theirs.

"Fuck!"

Annabel bit her lip hard enough to draw blood as she neared the large expanse of forest.

Caressing the leather grip of the gun hiding behind her chest, she slowly stumbled nearer to the forest.

The memories of a storm connected to monsters slowly rising in their mind.

---

It's been a few days since I was in the Promenade of the Condemned and found the teleportation monolith that had a series of traps that finally stopped when I went past them.

After taking the prize that was in the form of an incredibly explosive machine, I was now comfortably slaughtering monsters in the Promenade of the Condemned.

'Heh, you guys are still annoying little bastards'

Smashing the Protector apart that was shielding the monsters from harm, my new eyes saw that orange sparks left the broken doll as it flew through the air.

Currently, I have realized a few things upon arriving on this island and traversing the Promenade.

The orange sparks were everywhere and infested everything with their orange glow.

For comparison, the wooden Protector I just smashed was just an example.

After slaying a random Elite I had found, A much larger spark of orange left the chest of the monster and dispersed into many much smaller versions.

Throwing a Magnet Grenade at another approaching group of enemies, I quickly took up my bow and pulled back the strings with the arrows nocked before firing the arrows at the monsters.

This [Magnet Grenade] was one of the many weapons that I had the chance of encountering in this place.

I recalled the skeletal corpse of someone not infected I had taken the grenade from.

'Rest in Piece'

But anyways, the [Magnet Grenade] I had taken from the corpse was extremely useful.

Coming in the form of a small arm brace, whenever activated it threw out magnetically charged grenades that against all laws of Physics attracted everything to it.

I guess it was like a mini black hole's gravitational pull without the time being displaced thing.

But anyways.

Since the [Magnet Grenade] Could drag in everything around it, after experimenting for a bit, I found it suitable to launch a few projectiles at the monsters.

And Voila! Suddenly they aren't so hard to kill anymore.

Although I now had to burn more corpses than usual due to my tactics, I now had the ability to kill more monsters.

Why would I do that you may ask since I they didn't drop many useful things most of the time.

Opening my hand and looting the corpses, receiving handfuls of rotten flesh, bones, rags, eyes and various other things.

 I received the glowing orange blade from the [Runner] and took it out of my inventory with a smile on my face.

This item was relatively useless as I couldn't craft it into anything or use it as a weapon as it was a bit to unwieldy.

Although if I forced it, I could make a weapon out of the thing by hack crafting it together, it wouldn't be very good.

So, through generous amounts of time and experimentation.

I found out how to use it.

Destroying it. 

Bringing out the [Nut Cracker] A giant hammer weapon with copper as it's main body and steel as it's weaponized ends.

I left the [Runner's Hand] Lay on the ground before bringing the hammer down.

And with a shockwave traveling through the ground I smashed through the Runner's Hand and revealed the results of my experimenting.

Underneath the hammer, large blue orbs that were surrounding an orange core made it's way to my vision.

Smirking I took the things into my inventory and watched as something similar to my wallet ticked up in number.

The Number of Cells had increased.

Of course I didn't know how to use those cells but it was still good that the number of them had increased.

Smiling foolishly, I turned to look at the rest of the items in my inventory and searched for the unique drops of the monster to convert into cells.

Although their use was unknown, it was better to hold onto more of them until I found out, the cells weren't taking up any slots in my inventory anyways.

So quickly destroying any items that I received that were special and heartlessly burning the others.

My steps carried me to another place as my arms continued to slaughter monsters in all sorts of ways.

Experimenting with all my combat methods until I was incredibly familiar with nearly all of them.

The Yo yo which could quickly and accurately attack air borne enemies while incapacitating weaker ones.

The Bow which could attack enemies from incredibly far and difficult to reach distances.

The Hammer which was incredibly useful for attacking a large group of enemies and clearing out weaker ones.

The Shield which could stun and cause physical trauma like the hammer to a strong enemy.

The Sword which was good at slicing up numerous enemies while being incredibly flexible in it's uses.

And the spear which was good against a singular strong enemy.

And soon enough.

I reached that place.

Right in front of me was an incredibly tall tower like structure that reached to the high heavens.

In reality, I had already seen this place earlier as it wasn't particularly hidden and instead was incredibly eye catching.

Especially in the day where the sun shone on the alabaster white sun bleached stone bricks that were barely overtaken by the wild growth of plants.

So upon seeing that my first reaction was to head towards the giant tower.

But on second thoughts upon walking a few steps towards the building.

I thought it was better to collect everything I could from this place before leaving for the tower and finding out what was within it.

And my thought was proven to be correct.

I had already collected quite a few blueprints in my inventory and clogged up a lot of space, the magnetic grenade thankfully took a different weapon slot, so I had no problems there.

So in the last few days I was doing nothing but hunting and found out another startling thing.

Zero desire to sleep.

Well that and the monsters were seemingly endless.

Even after clearing out the Actual Promenade that didn't include nothing but trees.

Meticulously going through every empty, ruined, overgrown and monster infested building, I would slaughter monsters, gain cells, find equipment, gain monster loot and more.

However, the very next day when the sun rose again and I felt a strange sensation run through my body.

New monsters appeared from where their fallen brethren were before although in slightly smaller numbers.

So before that happened and I had to clear the entire promenade of the Condemned one more time.

I was more inclined to go to the tower and find out what secrets it was hiding.

And soon enough.

I reached it.

The Tower was more impressive up close than I had thought.

From far away, it was impressive enough due to it's size.

But up close that size was incredibly magnifies.

Large pieces of sun bleached stone made up the walls of the entire tower, the giant stone pieces that were my height were closely packed together and built the tower.

Pieces of rubble fell from the tower due to it's continued unused state, but there was no doubt that the tower was still a majestic structure.

If anything, due to the dilapidated sight of it, the tower was even more majestic in it's ruined and overgrown state.

 Briefly admiring the sight of the incredible feat of engineering, I stepped into the arched doorway of the tower and looked at it's insides.

Much like it's outside appearance.

Pieces of overgrowth sprouted through the cracks of the ground, taking over the wooden carpentry and stone masonry in it's green vibrancy.

Pieces of furniture were strewn about all over, telling a tale of the chaotic state of the tower before it was abandoned.

A small barricade of tables and chairs was made in the corner of the room, several arrows embedded in the structure.

Briefly considering looking into the structure I shook my head.

Whatever was behind the structure was definitely long gone, and due to the large gap in the defenses...

Either the defenders won and escaped or they died and were infected so there was no point in looking over the place.

Looking around the room, a purplish monolith that was slightly hidden in the greenery caught my eye.

Seeing the purple structure I smiled and moved towards it.

+++

Tree