บท 382: Discovery Discovery
Michael lets out a sigh as he sneaks through the ruins of Mzulft, invisibly walking past the various Dwemer automatons that were patrolling the place. Occasionally destroying some that were in the way of the exit.
He honestly hated fighting robots... It might sound morbid, but flesh was far more satisfying to cut through, instead of smashing his blade, fists, and feet at walking metal men. The reverberations sent through the blade and into his arm from attacking them alone were enough to make him swear off ever fighting them... Fortunately, he'd mastered a few Shock spells so he wouldn't have to waste tons of mana while spamming Laguna Blades at the enemy.
It isn't long before he spots the first Falmer of the day. The sickly grey skin, useless nonexistent eyes, and gnarled fanged mouth were able to frighten even the hardiest Nord if caught off guard. Thankfully, Michael had already had more than enough experience fighting these things.
They fought differently from most other foes, some acting like simple berserkers while others placed traps around their target, all while their strangely powerful spell casters threw unnatural spells around.
You haven't fought for your life before until you've been surrounded by Falmer and their giant insect pets called Chaurus, that came in many forms, large, small, flying, landlocked... Their exoskeleton was equivalent to iron or sometimes even steel armour, so combine that with their ability to spit acidic venom a significant distance, and you've got an army of incredibly dangerous creatures just ready to devour you.
The Falmer did have many weaknesses however, their non-existent eyesight made them heavily reliant on their sense of hearing. So, cast an overpowered muffle spell, mask your scent, and hide the heat your body produces and suddenly you've become completely invisible to them.
They do have some countermeasures, via using their Chaurus pets to triangulate your position, but in the midst of a chaotic battle, such things are less than useful, more often than not causing friendly fire amongst them.
Michael used all of this to great effect when he'd accidentally stumbled into a nest filled with thousands of Falmer and Chaurus... Darth was essentially invisible to them as well, so he was happily twisting necks without the enemy being able to do anything to him.
The only problem Michael had was the occasional yelp Derflinger gave when chopped into a harder than average substance. He rectified this with a variety of colourful threats though, finally rendering the sword silent, if a bit grumpy.
Three hours later of constant chopping, slicing, stabbing, and spellcasting, Michael had finally reached a giant hall that he vaguely remembered from the game... The strange-looking Focusing Gem that'd help control the Oculory that he'd found on a Falmer corpse was merely the cherry on top.
Not long after discovering the Focussing Gem, he located a vault of some sort, and after peering through the bars, he spotted a chest that held Aetherium Shard that he'd been looking for.
Casual use of Blink later and he loots the entire place, prying open the chests and uncovering a large number of Dwemer ingots, armour, gems, gold, enchanted items, etc. He stores them all and the Aetherium Shard in his inventory and proceeds to move towards the last room which held the Oculory.
*Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang!*
He heavily taps his fist against the fortified Dwemer door, wanting to see if any of the Synod had actually survived.
"W-who's there!? P-Plinius!? Is that you...?" a voice asks before tentatively opening the door, the gaunt man going pale when he comes face to face with Michael.
He gives a casual smile and gives the man a short wave, "Howdy." before pushing his way inside. He does have to stifle a gag when he notices the half dissected corpses of both humans and Falmer... This guy had held starvation at bay by cannibalizing the mutated snow-elves and his colleagues.
"W-wait! Stop! Who are you!" the mage demands, his hands sparking with electricity as he attempts to intimidate Michael.
Michael looks from the corpses and to the mage, "You're one sick puppy, aren't you?" he mutters towards the pitiful creature.
"N-no! I did what I had to! N-now, show me how you came here! Show me the exit!" he manically exclaims.
*CRAACK!*
The man's head spins until it's looking behind him, Darth having twisted it until his spine had completely snapped. He drops to the floor, dead. Leaving Michael all the time in the world to figure out the Oculory.
He found the machine in the next room, the huge Dwemer orb with metal limbs sprouting from the ceiling of the room, looking ready to be moved. He walks to the alter overlooking it all and places the Focusing Gem in a socket and gets to work moving it. Remembering that fire and ice spells were required to position it.
An hour of frustrating puzzle-solving later and Michael had finally finished, leaving him with a shining map of Skyrim that'd been projected onto the wall. There were many glowing spots on the map, some bigger than others, each were magically powerful artifacts, so Michael was eager to note down their location on his own map.
He did realise that many were just Daedric Artifacts judging by their locations. The Shrine of Meridia, the abandoned house in Markarth, etc. He wrote them down anyway before putting the Focussing Gem in his inventory.
He had half a mind to destroy the whole place but knew that it could still be valuable in locating artifacts that were on the move. If someone had one and wasn't actively blocking its magical signature, he could track the person wherever they went in Skyrim... A useful tool.
So, once he was done with the place, he completely locks down every entrance and exit before using a Dimension Gate to journey back to the College, happy with his loot.
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