Walk this Way

Cerezie aided Garrett as the two of them made their way back to the room where they had met Plex. Plex was standing there in the room, saluting towards the two of them. "Greetings Boss and fellow adventurer. The order has been successfully carried out. The scout drone did not escape." If Plex had a more expressive face, it would have been smiling from ear to ear. "Order successfully completed."

"Order no completely," Cerezie said, hauling the wounded Garrett onto the robot. "Drone escape there." She pointed down the hallway where she missed the drone. "Other robots came soon. Need moving." She looked around at the other exits of the room. "What down pathing you go?"

"Grammatical errors. Input not recognized," Plex said, still supporting up Garrett. Cerezie frowned at Plex and groaned. "Boss, who is this strange elf with you?"

"Oh, right. You all weren't properly introduced," Garrett said, having gotten too used to recognizing companions that he had forgotten that they had no idea who he was. "Cerezie, this is Plex. Plex, this is Cerezie."

"Plex?" Plex asked, looking at Garrett. "Are you referring to me?"

Garrett nodded. "Yeah, it says it right here." He pointed to the letters that he remembered Iadre pointing to before. "It says Plex in Dwarven, but there's more to the word, but it's been faded away over time."

"I see, well, I will happily take the new name, Boss," Plex said with a nod. "And it is nice to meet you as well, Cerezie." Plex extended an arm to Cerezie, but she swatted it away.

"Robot only be serve of Prism. No trustworthy!" Cerezie scowled at Plex with a burning hatred.

"Prism?" Plex said, scratching its theoretical chin. "I recognize the name, but my memory banks are unclear. I believe most of them have been damaged by wear and battle. However, my recognition software is still running and connected to a database somewhere."

"Is that how you recognized Cerezie as an elf?" Garrett asked, realizing he didn't really know that much about how Plex actually worked. Whatever dwarf had created Plex clearly had a strong understanding of robots and AI. In fact, as he thought back to the Biter robots and the scout drones, there were a lot more robots in this timeline than the others.

"It would appear so," Plex said.

"Ahem!" Cerezie cleared her throat, tapping her foot on the ground. "If you two forgettable, other robots arrival soon!" She grabbed Garrett and Plex's hands and tried to drag them down the pathway that Plex had gone, but Plex's metal body was too heavy for her to even budge. "Come! Must going!"

"Boss, how do you understand this one?" Plex asked, turning his attention from Cerezie to Garrett.

"It's Illiman, but it's not the greatest," Garrett said, pulling himself from Cerezie's grip, but still starting to follow her. She pouted a bit at the comment but relented. "I can understand her well. She wants us to go down this way."

"Understood Boss!" Plex saluted and followed behind Garrett, with Cerezie following behind both of them.

As the three of them continued down the hallway, they noticed that it was more refined and less natural. Almost as if it was intentionally carved out by a large machine. The hallway also expanded larger and larger until the ceiling was at least twice Garrett's height. He could feel his stress levels rising as they progressed further and further into the Darge. Was this all for the treasure of Amer-Turul?

"Cerezie," Garrett said, moving to stand by her side, "What exactly IS the treasure of Amer-Turul?" Cerezie gave him a strange look. "Like, do you know what it is? Is it a weapon? A map? Some magical artifact?"

"It not full known," Cerezie said, keeping her eyes moving to look for enemies. "Some tale say mighty weapon to defeat Prism. Others tale magic that shield. It not known well of shapely of treasure, but it be knowing of gold."

"So, the treasure is golden?" Garrett asked, and Cerezie nodded. "Well, if we ever find it, then we'll know." Cerezie nodded again, but then held her hand out to stop Garrett and Plex. "What is it?"

She put her finger to her mouth to signal for them to hush, then pointed towards the ceiling of the next room. Attached to the ceiling was what looked like to be an automated turret. There were two barrels that swiveled around, scanning the room. The room itself had three other exits, one of which had a large metal door without any markings; the other two were open exits. Inside the room were just more rocks and abandoned mining equipment, such as a minecart and tools. Cerezie looked around and found a small rock. She chucked it into the room and watched it clatter against one of the pickaxes on the ground. Immediately, the turret swiveled and riddled the area where the rock fell with bullets. The trio of adventurers stood stunned.

"How should we proceed?" Plex asked in a low tone after they slowly came back to their senses.

Cerezie pulled her rifle off her back and took aim at the sentry turret, only to bring it back down. "Rifle not stronger enough. Would not destroyed turret."

Garrett looked down at his wrist, seeing two of the jewels fulled charged back up with Xir. "I can cast some fire, but I don't think it's strong enough."

"Then what should we do, Boss?" Plex asked.

Garrett surveyed the room again, staring at the fresh bullet holes in the ground. "It didn't shoot until it heard the rock hit the pickaxe. It doesn't look like it has a visual sensor. Maybe this thing only responds to sounds, so if we can get to one of the exits without making too much noise, we might be able to make it through." He began to slowly take off his armor and put it into his backpack.

"Understood, Boss. Allow me to attempt first," Plex said. Cerezie and Garrett both looked at Plex's large and heavy metal body before Garrett nodded.

"Plex is of larger metal. How is silently?" Cerezie asked in a hushed tone as Plex began to slowly walk forward.

"You'd be surprised," Garrett said, pointing at how Plex already had made a few steps into the room without even a squeak. "Plus, I think he can take more bullets than we can if it does go wrong."

Cerezie and Garrett held their breath as Plex walked through the room at a slow pace, all three of them watching the turret. It swiveled, surveying around the room, but never aimed at Plex. Once Plex got directly under the turret, he gestured for which exit he should go for.