Of course, of course. (Qendou)

[Fight smarter, not harder. Utilize dangerous terrain and natural hazards to deal significant damage, or inflict debilitating conditions on enemies. More unique kills give higher Xp bonuses!]

Bonus Xp sounded great, but seeing that particular tooltip upon entering a new location worried you. Senses flared back to life and showed a bleak, sterile hallway made in the same cold metal fashion. A stale scent hung in the air like dust. It was the smell of millennia. You're not sure how that worked, but it did. Worst of all was the sharp, resounding clink every step generated.

'I guess stealth isn't going to be very useful here.'

This was not good. Hiding is likely the only reason you survived this long. In spite of killing a half dozen rabbits and one deer/snake thing, you were still level one. Sure, you've planned how to beat adventurers, and studied how the other local monsters fight. Actually experimenting with that information was still on the to-do list. Each step without a cataclysmic accident emboldened you. Thinking reassuring thoughts you continued onward.

'If things get too rough, I'll just run. There would have been a warning if this area was beyond my level anyway, right?'

The hallway itself was something you likely had never seen before. Walls, floor and ceiling all unnaturally flat. Inlaid patterns repeated without a hint of deviation. Dim, perfectly even light glowed from within the walls themselves; pure white and cold. It was like walking through a mechanical graveyard.

'What kind of people would create a place that felt so... dead?'

At the fifty-foot mark was a T-junction, or what use to be one. The left hall collapsed not far in; which made your next choice pretty clear. As the artificial tunnel sloped down, things started to get less pristine. Dirt and grime building up along the edges. Rust eating holes in the walls. False lights flickered, making them little better than dying candles. The sound of water flowing came from deep below.

You passed doorways to half destroyed rooms, or others fill to bursting with clutter. What little inventory space you had left quickly became occupied by the least useless items. A length of chain, a blacksmith's hammer, several rather lewd statuettes, a tarnished scroll case. Much of anything else was covered in rust, or buried in rubble. Maybe you'd come back here a dig around some more, but for now mapping the place out then turning in for the day was your main goal.

Finally, the trek came to an end. This last room turned out to be fairly large. It held ten rectangular pillars organized around a central dais. Each standing stone slab was as wide as you were long, and had a full arm span of depth. When you stood still, water could be heard from inside accompanied by the steady turning of gears. Between them all rose a three-step circular platform just large enough to fit a single person. Curiosity had served you well this far, so why not step into place?

One foot, then the next. Cogs and pulleys turned out of site on either side of you. Suddenly, the bottom step shot upward to enclose you in a stone cylinder. Before panic could take hold, color and light sprung into life. Small glowing shapes grew out from the barrier. It was covered in about a hundred rough and jagged pieces, orbiting a circle with a shining center. One had a tiny bright orange dot. It was shaped almost exactly like Shard #79. You touched it to feel the texture. It quickly shifted colors and grew to twenty times it's prior size.

Underlined words of an unknown language pointed to every region on your island. You tapped each one in turn. Most had pictures of animals and monsters that inhabited the area. Some showed notable landmarks, and others brought up sketches of complex machines. One appeared to be your current location. Nearly all of its menu options were grayed out. The rest just led to other bits of unreadable text or unusable selections. Except the last.

The sound of grinding stone sounded two-fold. First as your risen surroundings returned to the floor, and again as a wall to your left, sled open. Inside were many casks of something unidentifiable. Once more, there were odd scribbles that gave you no information. Each did have a symbol on their side. It was a black dot with lines oriented in a starburst pattern. All the item info told you was that it serves some purpose in the use of advanced machines.

It was two days later that something finally happened. You were sitting in the now resin lined cave, admiring each bit and bauble you collected over this first week. A slightly rusted chain that you fiddle with when you can't sleep. Metal plates, gears and some string that were turned into a wind chime. The little lewd figures placed in an alcove on each wall. Not to mention the blacksmith hammer that came in handy cracking open those geodes; the contents of one you were examining just then. It was a perfectly cut gemstone, the size of your fist. What kind it was escaped you, but you were just happy to have something so smooth and shiny to hold.

That's when you heard the voices from outside.