Discovering what lies within

With a jerk, John materialized within the City of Golems once more. The rough rows of storefronts lit by the setting sun and flickering orbs of light went on for longer than he would’ve ever thought of as practical before ending abruptly by intersecting with another wall of commercialism.

Looking around, he thankfully saw no golems anywhere near him. However, he also realized that he was still in his school uniform, and abruptly went to equip his rudimentary gear before the inevitability of getting hurt actually happened.

Now feeling slightly better equipped than he was earlier, John set off in a random direction to see if he would find anything that stood out from the normal pattern-like environment of the barrier.

Of course he encountered the occasional Worker Golem, but John quickly disposed of them with a Mana Javelin in each hand. The Ranged Golems were a tad bit of an issue, however. They attacked on sight in comparison to the Workers, that combined with their ranged capabilities and slight grasp of tactics made them a slightly bigger threat to John’s wellbeing.

But in the end he took them down all the same, albeit looking a bit more like a porcupine than before.

At this point, John had resorted to only attacking the ones that attacked him from the get go, attempting to increase the amount of time exploration before getting his shit kicked in by the boss of this barrier.

After approximately thirty more minutes of this, John had miraculously avoided summoning the boss. But more importantly, something seemed… off about the section of the market that he was in. At first glance it seemed completely normal, and if it wasn’t for his instincts telling him that there was something wrong here, he would’ve disregarded it like all of the ones before it.

Closer inspection revealed immaculate details in everything from the the paint on the walls, the sign hanging off to the side, to the storefront display. Ironically enough, that was the thing that gave it away. All of the other sections seemed to be much of the same of a couple presets with a bit of randomness thrown in for good measure to avoid repetition.

So John just walked up to the door and opened it… only to be met with yet another copy of the interiors he had seen so far. Sighing, he mentally chided himself for thinking it would be that easy before walking outside once more.

This left him with only one option that he could think of: scour the storefront for anything out of place. Not particularly happy about it, John started at the storefront display. It featured several mannequins in various suggestive poses, wearing primarily suits and dresses that seemed like they’d be more appropriate in a museum with an exhibit on the victorian era than on a mannequin.

However, he did not find anything amiss even after careful examination, leaving him to move on to the next thing at hand, the hanging sign, proudly announcing ‘Macys, your way to shop.’ Frankly, John had never heard of a shop called this in his life.

Disregarding the unknown factor of the name, John looked at the sign for a moment before immediately realizing the slightly obscure issue with it. It was lacking an apostrophe in “Macy's.” Mentally thanking Mr. Dra, one of his high school english teachers that had beaten grammar rules into his subconscious, John jumped slightly and tapped the part of the sign where it should have been.

Immediately, two things happened. The missing apostrophe appeared with a blue flash of light, and the door to the store flew open with enough **** to partially knock it off of its hinges.

Reeling at the shock of that actually working, John took a moment to compose himself before walking through the open door, half expecting the inside to still be the same generic interior as before. This was immediately demonstrated to not be the case.

An empty hallway that eerily reminded John of the labyrinth barrier he had been in earlier stretched out from the doorframe, leading off into two different directions while a metal sign with text scratched into it hung down from the ceiling by lengths of chain. John’s immediate instinct was to inspect the sign, which read as ‘Your choices will persist, inflicting lasting consequences and benefits alike. Think carefully, John.’

As he finished reading it, a shiver went down his spine. Needless to say, this was definitely what he was looking for.

He was faced with a decision immediately: to follow the left path with its endless hallway or the right path with its equally endless hallway. Figuring **** was probably worse than the other, John headed into the right doorway, because why not?

Immediately, the passage closed behind him, sealing John in entirely and plunging him into total darkness. The reward better be worth it… So he walked forwards along the now darkened corridor, getting slightly more anxious that he made the wrong choice with every step.

To his relief, orbs of light suddenly activated, similar to the ones outside but with a much less bright radiance, as it wasn’t quite needed inside a hallway. So John just… continued walking; there wasn’t any other clear option available to him at the moment.

Abruptly, the corridor widened out into a room whose size was comparable to that of a warehouse. The flooring changed from stone tiling to steel plates, the walls were completely flat aside from slight indentations that indicated some sort of door on the far right side.

But what was almost infinitely more interesting was the machine that lay in front of John. Its massive bulk stretched from wall to wall. His eyes widened as he observed the absolute bulk of it, looking upwards at the mechanism that dwarfed him in size.

It could only be described as… a mass of slightly rusted steel gears of all sizes, bronze pipes, swathes of vacuum tubes, and safety hazards all hooked up to some sort of central core from every possible angle… a softly glowing orb safely encased in a glass container that stood on top of the machinery. A large tube like conduit stretched out from it before descending to the ground, connecting to a small, waist high station.

It was essentially a cube of painted metal, seemingly harmless. However, as John approached it, steps echoing out into the deserted laboratory, it gradually unfolded itself, revealing a sort of… throne.

While under any other circumstance, he wouldn’t just go sit in mysterious chairs hooked up to a bunch of technology he didn’t know about, but something about it seemed to draw John in. Some sort of primal instinct within called out towards the seat, eager to be unleashed. And by all means, he certainly wasn’t going to deny it.

As John took a seat in the chair facing the machinery, it seemed to almost form to him and, despite the metal construction, was quite comfortable. But something drew his attention away from this curious fact, a menu opening without him calling for it.

His eyes fell upon the tower of machinery once more, was this what all of… this was for? Enhancing yourself? Despite the obvious concerns, John looked back towards the menu, considering the choices seriously for once.

While the armor was nice… taking away 10% of his agility would nearly be crippling, even at later levels. Why would you need armor if you didn’t get hit in the first place?

The next two options were the true contenders, the Hardwired Mana Channels and Integrated Mana Capacitors. While the electricity damage was entirely situational, with how much time he spent around technology, it would only be a matter of time before he shocked himself to ****. So that one was just out.

And then there were the Mana Capacitors. While 5% of his health was painful, 75% was a sizable increase in Mana Capacitance, which was his main limiting factor right now. So that was what John went with.

As soon as he pressed the option, John regretted his decision.

The machinery abruptly whirred to life with a flash of sparks and the groan of metal being pushed beyond its limits, moving with ever increasing speed as if it wasn’t more than a day old.

Metal bands closed around John’s arms, neck, and legs to prevent him from leaving. The chair John was on began to slowly rise, eventually stopping when he was face to face with the now cracking and spinning central core. Runes gradually began to reveal themselves as the core consumed more and more power, layering themselves upon one another until he could barely make out the actual surface of the sphere.

This was a really fucking bad decision, John thought to himself, oddly calm given the circumstances.

The whirring of gears and the crackle of electricity grew louder and louder, to the point that John’s hair began to stand on end.

And then everything stopped.

Everything, from the whirring gears and sparking cables to the very lighting, had been completely and utterly turned off. Does this mean that it’s-

John’s thoughts were pierced by the sudden reawakening of the beast with a monstrous roar of metal spinning faster than it was ever intended to. Metallic screeching echoed out with the **** of the machine, but no matter how much damage was dealt, it just kept on going.

The glow of the core grew stronger and stronger until it hurt to look at, seemingly beginning to open up, but John couldn’t truly make out the details.

Electricity began to arc out from the towers of metal; it seemed as if it was charging up for something.

Abruptly, a focused bolt of primal energy was thrown towards John outwards from the core, piercing his very soul. The immense pain this created caused him to immediately go ****.

If he were in any state to see it, John would have seen yet another popup.

Updating Gamer’s Body’s Default Preferences