A lone Carapace Scavenger was picking away at a piece of a dead shark corpse. It had begin to chitter happily. Suddenly, something landed atop it and pierced through the vulnerable spot of its chitin, killing it instantly.
Milo quickly hopped off of the dead Carapace Scavenger, cutting it open, immediately consuming its soul shard, stripping some meat, and continuing to run ahead.
The mini map had done a lot of service, combined with the fact that he had gained a useful assortment of Memories, Milo was moving fast. So far he was still quite a distance away from the Dark City, about six more weeks of travel.
So Milo wasted no time sprinting through the coral labyrinth. He tried his best to stick to the tops of coral, jumping from coral to coral. The reason why was right in front of him, a barely noticeable, translucent steel wire. In reality it was a silk web from those Iron Spiders that populated this place. Milo didn't like dealing with those pesky webs.
So he opted to swing from as much as possible. At least until the webs were noticeably gone. Then he would resume his running pace. He was constantly on the move until it was night, at that point he found himself at the nearest refuge.
He would cook the meat he had gotten every two mornings and eat what he could. Then it was back on the move again. He hardly went for kills unless they were easy, and rarely where they easy. It seemed some giant creature had died considering the piece of shark he found that Carapace Scavenger eating.
He noticed the coral ahead seemed torn through, bringing Milo to a dead stop. He allowed his prosthetic to change to its original form. It had changed after he had received his new Aspect. He had been too caught up with observing all the new goodies he had that he failed to see the difference until after he started moving.
His prosthetic was no a longer a dark grey. It had now taken on a black form with digital blue lights lining it occasionally. The lights were luckily subtle enough to not be attract monsters at night, however they were still noticeable if one looked closely.
His prosthetic had also been the thing to occupy his first soul core. Considering the fact that his prosthetic was previously apart of his dormant Aspect ability, Milo found himself happy. It didn't take up an Aspect Ability and yet seemed unchanged, it even got an aesthetic upgrade.
Milo focused on the task at hand. He moved forward cautiously, then his mouth separated as he saw the cause of the destroyed coral.
There stood a giant lobster of some kind. It was picking away and eating at something. Making multiple chittering sounds, the tear of flesh filled the air and the smell was rather rancid.
Milo got a peak at what it was tearing apart, and it was the head of that shark creature the monsters were tearing apart. Milo tried his best to simply pass by the lobster, but it turned around, staring straight at him. Milo quickly ducked for cover, in the next moment, a straight beam of water pierced through the air where he had been standing moments ago.
'This is why I didn't want to fight this damn lobster.'
Milo clenched his fist in frustration. He made his way around the weird looking lobster, staying in its line of sight was the worst thing to do in this situation. Milo tried his best to stay hidden until he had a golden opportunity. His form was nestled in a bundle of coral and crouched atop a rock. He just needed a single second of opening.
The lobster turned away, and Milo pounced, the Prototype aiming to pierce the underbelly of the lobster. The lobster turned around and nearly sent Milo flying with its claw. Milo barely managed to block the claw and keep himself near it. Any distance would result in his body being pierced through by water of all things.
Milo quickly punched the underside of the lobster, the shell was weaker there. It splintered into multiple pieces, exposing a beating organ. Milo quickly stabbed the prosthetic through, ignoring the claws trying to pick him up.
The Prototype dug in, and Milo punched the pommel with his prosthetic for good measure. Thunder sounded, and Milo looked up to see a bright blue energy past through the Nightmare Creature's seaweed covered shell.
The lightning from the Prototype had discharged inside of the lobster, leaving quite the spectacle of lightning pop out of its shell and the smell of cooked lobster meat.
[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Crustacean Artillery]
Milo quickly punched his prosthetic through the crack in the shell's underside. After feeling around, he grabbed the soul shard.
[Your system grows stronger]
Milo preferred the old line if he was being honest with himself. This one just felt redundant in his opinion.
He had enough meat, so he continued to make his way without bothering to skewed the lobster even more.
***
Milo was getting tired, all things considered. It had been four weeks. Staying on the move was rather exhausting mentally. He had gotten a good view of the Ashen Barrow and the Soul Devouring Tree. What a off-putting place it was, Milo was glad to avoid it.
What he wasn't happy about was the long detour. At the very least it was almost over, and he had grabbed tons of soul shards. He had also began researching just how to fix the Metal Shell and make it his own memory. The biggest issue was the Sealed enchantment was so engraved into the Memory itself that it would basically be impossible to remove it without destroying the Memory.
Which led Milo to an other solution, he could just copy what he wanted and ditch the rest onto his own creation. So that was exactly what he was planning on doing, at least as soon as he got access to the materials. Milo was stuck using the Metal Shell considering it was his best Memory option in terms of armor.
Milo still felt uncomfortable wearing it, considering Eva had been able to control from a distance, who was to say she wouldn't do it again in the future?
Milo frowned just thinking about it. He'd better get to the Bright Castle fast if he wanted to replace this damn prison of an armor.
***
Eva stared at the fruits of the Soul Devouring Tree. It was just too tempting, a bounty of soul shards for herself to enjoy without any risk of brainwashing. The guilty three could not say the same however.
Sunny had to receive Blood Weave, however, so all she had to was just sit back and enjoy doing nothing as she got stronger with every fruit eaten. It was also wise to use this time to check on the enemy she had made. She pulled up the Proof of Cooperation and checked Milo's location.
Eva's eyes widened... he already reached the Dark City? What the hell? Was this guy a track star or something?
Eva quickly looked around nervously, she had planned on getting there around the same time as Milo so he couldn't get a head start in connections, but now she needed to rush there before his influence grew too great, and grow it would.
His Aspect would be coveted, he could be the only person with a speaker in the Dream Realm after all. Imagine the moral boosts from parties with music from the real world? Everyone would love this guy, and if he hated Eva, then everyone would hate her.
Eva quickly scurried to find Sunny and convince him to head up the tree. She needed to get moving as quickly as possible.
'This bastard... if he wasn't apart of the plan I would've just killed him. He knows my secret too!'
Eva anxiously bit into another fruit and ascended the branches of the Soul Devouring Tree.
***
Milo had to admit, the Bright Castle was no joke. It was amazing, however, Milo also noted the way things were run here. He didn't like it... for the most part. It was an order, but an ugly one, however a demented order is better then chaos.
Milo could worry about that later, for now he needed to create as much possible. He had joined under the artisans, many of them seemed interested in his prosthetic which he proudly showed off. The feat of something like that alone had gotten him put comfortably in their ranks, meaning he had access to everything he needed to make.
First and foremost, he needed a companion to help negate his Flaw, an AI to be specific, that would be very difficult. Then he had to create an armor Memory in order to stop using the potential prison that the Metal Shell was. Last but not least, he had to fix up the Prototype, and from there he would decide what to assimilate into his second soul core.
All this while completing assignments and payments for the Bright Lord and hopefully before Eva showed up here... what a challenging predicament indeed. He just hoped that life here would remain relatively peaceful until Eva showed up. As usual, things did not go the way Milo wanted.