Close to noon of that same day, Cole and Morgan rolled into the settlement of Nukia. The name was a bit weird, but that was mainly because the settlement had been created by a goblin. It was shocking to him, but apparently not all Goblins were wild and Savage, and the founder of Nukia had been a farmer.
This was information Cole had gotten after he had gone to the Tavern for a drink and a little bit of information. The founder of Nukia had been a goblin named Titus Boris, and the settlement was founded some 15 to 20 years ago. Politics and it's close proximity to the frontier had not allowed it to enjoy much of any sort of development, and this was saying something, especially after the founder had lost his life after an experiment with his orchard had gone wrong and left it cursed.
It sounded like a tragic story, Nukia had once been a wine making settlement and was well on its way to become a full blown town before the disaster that caused the orchard to become cursed. Now the place sat here rotting away without a person able to take over the deeds to the orchard due to the nature of the curse.
Then when Cole asked about what this particular curse was like, he couldn't get straight answers. Apparently the curse took on a different form depending on what sort of creature was in the Orchards manor. However the orchard itself was built like a maze, and many of the trees and plants there had been demonized, or had demons summoned from the depths of hell through their bodies etc.
It did give Cole a lot to think about, but not much else. He made his preparations by getting twenty vials of Health potions. A new floor meant that healing items were of a different form. Luckily for him, energy was still stuck in a canister. So with his energy canisters and health potions, he left the settlement of Nukia after registering himself at the small cradle facility it had.
He had to put most of his valuable stuff into the bank there in order to keep them safe. He contemplated using his remaining silver prisms to take most of his stats to the iron rank as well, but the allocation of stats were random, and honestly it was taking a bit longer than usual to get used to his new physical capabilities.
With perception and Dexterity now in the iron rank, Cole was faster or perhaps the word would be more fluid. He had more control over his body than before and could measure and improve the amount of force and power he could put into his strikes. And with perception, he had an almost preternatural sense of his environment, being absolutely knowledgeable of things happening within a 8 meter radius around him, courtesy of the domain boost to his stat.
All in all he was pretty strong right now, and he just wanted to get used to it. He had gained way too many things recently, so it meant he had a full arsenal. He just needed to refine his Techniques now and get used to this new level of power.
The settlement was built as the foot of a valley that was enclosed by two mountains. While the mountains terrain was a bit uneven and an rough, the valley it encircled fell a bit as an incline from it's entrance before leveling out.
This made it possible for the valley to catch rain water, as everything seemed to be funneled into it. The valley itself surrounded by the mountains probably looked like a horse shoe from above. The entrance had a pair of massive wooden gates that were thrown what and in various stages of decay.
A faded sign on it read Titus Boris Orchard, Brewery and Winery. Then there was a couple of extra squiggles on there that seemed to be a different form of written language. Cole adjusted his mask and hat, then took a look at his environment, pushing his perception as far as he could to detect any sort of ambush.
There was nothing and no one in sight. He felt Morgan shudder beneath him, before he decided to take a look at the Mechanoids stat page again to make sure there was nothing different to be seen and everything was intact.
[Mount: The Morgan I// Type: Land Based// Species: Mechanoid// Classification: Direwolf King]
[Level: 210 // Rank: Iron// Attribute: Demonic, Mechanical, Stellar]
[Skills: <Energy Mini-Gun L1> <Plasma Cannon L1> <Rend L2> <Stride L2> <Pack Leader L1>]
Cole had felt like a fool when he had first looked through Morgan's stat page. It was very different from what the Mona Lisa had looked like, and it presented a loop hope for him to exploit. If he could get Morgan to level up on this floor, the original form of the Mona Lisa would definitely have been upgraded.
And beyond that all of the skills that Morgan had could not be used unless on command of his master, or with already set parameters in place.
The rules of this floor did not allow for an automated security system, not unless Cole gave specific orders on what skill to use, and how it should be used, when it should be used and against what.
Which was why till the cows Morgan hadn't been able to help him with some fights, and even then, Morgan could only rely on physical might to defeat those cows.
Cole made a few last minute checks on everything else, and made sure all of his guns were loaded, and his sword was in place and his energy was topped off. Preparation was key, especially when you consider this was not a dungeon with some predetermined pattern he was going into, this was out in the open with monsters and bandits waiting deep within it for him, the only thing he could was make sure he was prepared. He touched his rifle then urged Morgan to walk in.
"Let's go bag us some horse thieves and apples."
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