Milo woke up in the afternoon. His head was ringing with the aftershock of his lucky and unlucky spree. He looked around; there was a put-out campfire, and some cooked meat strips impaled through a stick over the campfire.
Milo took a piece of meat and chewed on it; his lips were woefully dry.
'I need some water.'
Milo looked down; he already knew the drill. But before that...
Milo focused on the runes for the Serpent's Scales.
Memory: [Serpent's Scales]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Type: Armor
Memory Description: [On this forgotten shore, only steel remembers, while flesh and body are discarded. These scales are no exception.]
Milo summoned the memory, and a white shimmer spread across his body. Steel scales appeared one after another, quickly covering him from head to toe. The armor formed smoothly, each scale sliding into place until his entire body was protected. The scales overlapped tightly, resembling the skin of a serpent.
The metal had a faint aqua tint, giving the armor a cool, watery shine. When Milo moved, the scales shifted slightly against each other, but the armor stayed flexible and light.
A solid helmet formed last, covering his head completely. Two narrow slits served as a visor.
Milo took off the helmet. The wings were clearer now, curving slightly outward. It looked somewhat like a serpent, but mostly like a well-made armet helmet with decorative wings.
Milo clenched his fists; he felt lighter in the armor. Also sneakier, like a serpent...
'Ah, I see, that's probably the enchantments at work.'
Then he looked down at his prosthetic. The armor had custom-fitted itself to enhance the prosthetic rather than simply cover it. The scales fit into the small seams and reinforced his joints.
With newfound confidence, he brought Triscarion out and hopped on her back.
'Let's go, girl.'
Triscarion made her way down the hill. Once the dog reached the bottom, she lowered her back for Milo, who stepped off.
"Thanks, girl," Milo softly petted the three-headed hound and dismissed it.
He stretched his elbows and got to walking. He collected water droplets as he could about the area. He avoided suspicious-looking dirt piles and never strayed too far from the hill.
At least, that's what he thought...
When evening approached, Milo retraced his footsteps perfectly, and yet he was only met with an empty lot. So, he did the only thing he could do: panic and search frantically for a safe spot on high ground.
He ran through confusing hallways and nearly slipped on mud. He didn't care for the screeching of Carapace Scavengers behind him. Finding what seemed to be an adequate enough coral hill, he scaled it with the help of his prosthetic.
Out of breath, and nearly every muscle in his body aching, Milo lay down on the coral contently. He didn't even bother to summon Triscarion for extra warmth and a nice soft blanket; the armor on him would be enough to keep him warm.
Milo drifted off to sleep, rough waves crashing against the coral. Milo stirred; he heard rough waves and breathing... wait, he heard breathing?
Milo whipped awake, his prosthetic already changing into a pointed form. He looked around in the dark. Nothing... he considered having fire for just a split second to see, but decided against it.
He slowly stood up, the light noise of his scaly plates a distraction from his focus. Once he was done standing up, his body froze entirely. He listened for any other sound besides the waves and the wind, only to be met with nothing.
So, he summoned Triscarion and lay down with the dog until he fell back asleep.
As he woke up, he contemplated something.
'I have no idea where I'm going or what I'm doing.'
He had been essentially wandering in circles for three days now. Three days without any sort of meaningful progress; he simply had to find a direction and stick to it. With his mind made up, he looked ahead.
'That's where I'm headed... until I find some sort of landmark.'
He headed down the coral hill and prepared himself. It was time to put up numbers that would put even a Saint to shame.
He spent the next week progressing forward, avoiding large groups of scavengers along with some millipede creatures he didn't want to mess with. He killed stray scavengers and harvested their meat and soul shards, bringing him to a comfortable thirty-three after killing fifteen.
It wasn't easy, but he had developed a genius strategy: distract the scavenger, then summon Triscarion to sneak attack and put down the scavenger in one fell swing of the sword. Along with the Ascended armor Milo had, it was an overall comfortable strategy.
He also learned to do more with his prosthetic. Beyond just making it sharp enough to pierce through stone, he could crush stone, slash stone, carry heavy stones, and the works. It had a limit, though; he couldn't make a car out of his prosthetic, as it was limited to the relative mass and build of the arm. The farthest he had managed to manipulate it was to resemble that of a metal human head.
That had taken a lot of strain from him mentally to maintain the shape and details, so he couldn't come up with any huge fancy tricks just yet. It also didn't take long for him to notice that the prosthetic grew stronger along with him for every soul shard he consumed. It developed alongside his soul after integrating with it, which was really neat.
Walking down the muddy maze of coral, Milo looked out for footprints or stops in the mud. As he did, he noticed something off; it was not the usual markings of the legs of the scavengers. It looked like some sharp edge protruding out of the ground. Just for safe measure, though, he used a tried-and-true method.
He picked up a nearby rock and threw it at the protrusion. It made a sharp clang as the rock bounced off something hard. Milo walked over cautiously, the Prototype formed in his right hand just in case.
Walking over, he reached into the mud, his prosthetic gripping around metal. He yanked outwards, and in his hand, a metal box was there... what in the world? This had to be someone's aspect, but who? As far as he was aware, no one at the Academy had this aspect.
Milo hesitated, then he realized something. He looked at the Prototype, then at his own prosthetic, then back at the box. The aesthetic was nearly identical. Milo looked around; it was time to call it quits early.
Heading up a nearby elevated platform, Milo inspected the box, trying to find anything to open it or any function to use it. Eventually, he found a small vertical slot along the height, then he remembered something. He summoned the memory he long thought useless since the First Nightmare.
Admin's Card appeared in Milo's hands, and he inserted it into the hole. The box began to open, a dim digital light emerging from it. An even smaller box ejected, and from it came a hologram. A familiar figure appeared; it was that bastard Carmen!
"Ah, whoever is watching, you don't have the proper keycard needed to open this thing, but you still have something of mine." The small box scanned his face, and then the hologram turned red, along with the light being emitted from the larger box.
"If you are seeing this message, well, frankly this thing is about to explode, along with all the contents inside. It also managed to kill a Fallen Devil in testing... so I would start running."
Milo's eyes went wide, but then he remembered.
'My Aspect!'
Milo was no longer some fool who had to follow the rules when it came to technology! Walking up to the box, he placed his hand and willed it just like how he wielded his prosthetic. However... it wasn't working, or rather, it wasn't attached to his soul so he couldn't will it as he pleased.
However, there was still a way... Milo felt something in his body stir, so he focused on the sensation. It felt like the box was dragging him, or rather his consciousness was being dragged within. Milo could tell this was his attribute [Digital Composition] at work.
The digital make-up and code of the box was incredible. Really, how in the world was Carmen so advanced? It seemed that he came from the future, but how and why? Regardless, Milo focused on changing code, deleting and writing new code, all in an effort to stop the explosion.
Milo watched as his edits and inputs were successful. With that part done, it was time to follow through with actually getting whatever was inside of it.
Milo went through the annoying process of brute-forcing himself through multiple different codes and inputs and whatnot. It hurt his brain, but luckily, his [God of Machines] attribute allowed him to brute-force through some of it, though it was about as pleasant as slamming oneself against a concrete wall to break through it.
After that was done, it came down to the truly hard part of pulling himself back to his senses. Milo returned to his own body, away from the digital composition of the box, and he immediately fell to his knees and threw up...
'Gosh, that's disorientating!'
Milo wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. He stood up with slightly shaky legs. The box was now open, and within was a small USB chip.
Milo grabbed the chip; it was one of the newest models, the same one that connected to the Dreamscape pods and those at-home supercomputers.
Then came the shocking part:
[You have received a Memory: Carmen's Database]
'W-what?'
Had Milo just hit the jackpot? Access to an entire catalogue of this mad genius's tools, weapons, and blueprints was insane. Of course, it wouldn't be usable until he got home, but he would get home.
With reinvigorated spirit, he stood up happily; however, he was so lost in this process that the sea was rising. A shame he couldn't have made more progress, but at the very least he earned this boon... but why was it about to reach the platform? In fact, it had gotten all the way up to his ankles, and it wasn't stopping anytime soon.
'Damnation!'