Today was my first journey to the Core of Cradle. Truth be told, it was my first time in Tier 3. I had just gotten my Defender crest, proudly wearing it, and took the lift down to Emberlight. As the lift descended from the surface down to Emberlight, I took a moment to survey the clockworks, the two tiers I had successfully mastered. Somewhat. I had my newly-alchemized Mighty Cobalt armor and helmet, with the accompanying Mighty Defender that would complete the set. As I descended, I looked on my wristpad, revealing the two strata to be a poison and fire stratum, respectively. I hoped my equipment would be enough.
Finally, the lift arrived at Emberlight with a distinct *THUD* as it stops. I take a moment to survey my surroundings, seeing another knight beckoning me over to the lift down. From what I could tell from the icon, it was concrete jungle. Oh boy I was nervous! He waited on the lift for me, and I nervously walked on, suddenly jumping in when the wall closed behind me. I decided there would be no going back until I reached the core. To ensure this, I carried several sparks of life on my belt which I had bought from the quartermaster. The lift arrived, I gripped my ascended calibur in one hand, my shield in the other. The stark smell of noxious gases, along with some undead dust filled the fake-night air.
With my partner, we bravely cut through the toxigels and dust zombies, going through two whole levels without incident. On the third, however, I saw something that truly made me stop in my tracks. While slicing through toxigels and lobbing zombie heads off their bodies, I noticed what seemed to be a huge toxigel. This scared me immensely, as I had never seen such a slime. It looked almost like a lichen colony, just a lot more green, a lot more toxic, and a whole lot more dangerous. My partner had apparently been struck down by that big toxigel, what I now will now call a Toxilargo. I dodged, struck, retreated, attacked, and dashed in a myriad of attacks to slice the toxilargo into a puddle of goo on the ground. After a few exchanges of slashes, gasses, tackles and slices, I finally managed to fell the toxilargo. My partner begging for my help, I kneed down, giving one of the sparks on my belt to him. Turns out the lift was right around the corner. Good for us. So far I hadn't had to use one of my sparks, or any of my emergency revives. Then as I approached the lift, there was a large black question mark on a white static background.
From what I had learned from previous tiers, it either meant treasure vault, graveyard, or clockwork tunnels. I sure hoped it wasn't a graveyard; as if they weren't scary enough in tier 2. We both jumped on the lift, fully expectant of a graveyard. Instead, the warm air filled the sky, with an artificial daylight filling the sky. Turns out we got a treasure vault. How pleasant! That pleasant feeling immediately disappeared when a kleptolisk proceeded to steal one of the sparks from my belt. "Hey," I yelled at it, "Those are expensive! Give it back!" After killing the offending kleptolisk, it didn't give back my spark of life, much to my disdain. However in the boxes, I found plenty of fire crystals, which were always a welcome surprise.
We completed looting everything possible, stuffing our pockets with as many crowns as possible, and grabbing the biggest minerals we can; after that we hopped on the lift, descending down to a clockworks terminal. I didn't know what to think of this clockworks terminal. It looked… different. Needless to say I investigated, with a path extending along the back. Were these the infamous "Shadow Lair" gates? Indeed they were. Luckily (or unluckily for some) they were sealed, preventing anything from going to or from the lairs unless one had the key. With a slight shiver, I went back to the main part of the terminal, looking at the lift gate icon. Turns out it was going to be a compound in a fire stratum. Lovely. And this is where things turned for the worse.
I tried to talk to my partner, saying to wait until the gates cycled, perhaps for clockwork tunnels to cycle. He had none of it, and promptly leapt on the lift, ready to go down to the compound. This would spell the end for him. I joined him, feeling the hot air of the stratum only a few meters under the terminal. Things would not end well for him, I thought. At least I was prepared. "You ready?" I asked him as the lift stopped at the entrance. He simply nodded. He was very obviously not ready. I sat at the arsenal station, eyeing the situation ahead. I went ahead and quickly installed some cooling cells on my armor to help ease the beads of sweat rolling off of me. Not only was it hot from the fire stratum, the closer we get to the core, the more pure energy emanating off of it. Taking a quick look down, seeing the core not too far down, I was determined I would reach it. "Here goes," I suddenly said, and charged off after my partner who had went ahead without me. We battled valiantly against the wolvers and oilers near the entrance. While he carelessly swung without bothering to shield himself, I had taken on a more defensive position. Strike, strike, shield. Strike strike shield. It was truly helpful, one of the swordsman strategies, being light on your feet, ready to block at any time. Oh boy did this prove useful. About a third of the way through the compound, he was struck down by a construct. He told me to go on, and I, now entirely alone, decided I would not try to slay the unspeakable horrors that await. I would just run through, as fast as I can towards the exit. Several times I was struck down by several manners of constructs, Gun Puppies, Red Rovers, Mecha Knights, but thankfully no Lumbers. And all those several times, I was glad I was prepared, using the sparks on my belt.
Around the end, things started to get tricky. There were tons of tiny slimes, climbing up through the cracks. Not only were they annoying, they were inherently dangerous in such numbers. What let me survive was not killing them, but kiting them around and around me, grabbing a key for one gate, cycling around, unlocking a gate, going around, picking up a key, keep cycling around, unlock the final gate. And one of the buggers managed to set me on fire! I rushed past the force field, jumping on the lift, going down to a blast furnace. I had decided to not even bother going for anything, but to survive no matter what. I rushed through the blast furnace, not bothering to kill anything unless it was unavoidable. Thankfully not many creatures entirely blocked my way. After the blast furnace I rushed to the lift not even bothering to see what was below.
Turns out, it was a Wolver Den, which I would have managed to get through rather quickly had it not forced me to fight several squads of the darned creatures. And I was followed by several which I evaded from earlier, although they managed to burrow under the gate. I got struck down once or twice, though managing to get through after striking down all of the creatures. Trying not to attract any more unwanted attention, I ran, and I tell you I [i]ran[/i] as fast as I could to the lift.
Since I wasn't going to be as careless as I was last time, I stopped to take a look at the display, noticing the dreaded candlestick icon on the display. I was NOT going through a burning candlestick keep, in Tier 3, on my first trip through.
At least soon it cycled, and I was faced with another blast furnace, this time with undead legions trying to stop me from getting to the core. I would have none of this. Jumping on the lift, I descended, the heat from both the blast furnace and the core nearly overwhelming me and the cooling cells. Happily, I rushed through the platform without any incident, or being forced to lop any zombie heads, or strike down any Kats, which was good. After rushing through, I finally stood at the final lift. The lift to the core.
I nervously stood on the lift, taking me down to the final level. The amount of adrenaline pumping through my veins was enormous, having gone through the entirety of Tier 3, on my first try, half of it by myself. I was very excited to say the least. As I arrived, I felt the stale, steamy, energetic air on my face. I took one look off the side, trying to get a better vantage point. Not being careful, I bumped into one of the technicians on site, guiding me to Lieutenant Vaelyn. I talked to her, and she gave me the run down of the place. Satisfied, I walked to the inactive lift, looking down onto the ever-beating heart of this mechanical world. The amount of energy flowing onto my face was enormous, being this close to the core. I must have stared at the core for half an hour, as Vaelyn poked me, saying I had been staring at the core for a while. I showed a sheepish look on my face, before rushing back to the lift to Haven. "I would be back here," I thought.
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