Down The Rabbit Hole

Atlas moved swiftly in silence, dispatching the few monsters in its path with ease as it searched for a boss room for further descent. As soon as it had passed the bottom of the stairs from the entrance, its connection to the stone strengthened back to what it was before. This made the golem realize that its advanced control was likely limited to the labyrinthine stone and perhaps related to its connection to the dungeon.

'𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦, 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘱 𝘣𝘺 𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦. 𝘐𝘵'𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘐 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.'

The golem had already gotten used to fighting the monsters on the first floor; it was simple with no threat, but the magic cores they dropped were puny, and only a few actually had cores to being with. When it repaired its left arm, it temporarily replaced the hand with a thick sword, measuring roughly three-quarters of a meter straight out from the wrist. Atlas wasn't ambidextrous before, but it seemed to handle itself fairly well, though it would need an actual challenge to put itself to the test. The golem figured dual-wielding was as good a method as any to increase its fighting potential while moving alone.

Then it stopped upon making a realization, why limit itself to two arms? Other than the annoying pure silver that it couldn't manipulate, it had gotten rather adept at shaping the compressed labyrinthine stone making up the rest of its body. Ideas flashed through its mind, and it could easily store additional stone inside the spatial ring and streamline adding it to its body whenever needed.

It could simply innovate new forms of its own body to protect its core better, and not only that, considering the nature of its core sharing likeness to its soul, that being nearly undetectable, why not make fake cores as well? It would need to use monster cores, and they might explode internally when shattered, but that would be far better than its actual core getting struck. It could even direct the energy of the blast to return the favour to whatever hit it...

By the time Atlas came out of deep thinking, it had realized it had arrived at a pair of bronze doors, a Boss Room. It reshaped its left blade arm back into a proper hand and began putting its ideas into action. The heavy stone pauldrons on its shoulders began to shudder and expand slightly, and from the newly opened space behind his first set of arms, a second set started to take form. Atlas modified the pauldrons to allow a larger degree of movement for both sets of arms, and once both sets were identical, it started to move them around.

'𝘐𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳, 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘴, 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨...'

But it wouldn't be that easy; with both sets being identical, they often got in each other's way, and while it could control the new arms fairly well, they help much as they are now. Atlas ruminated on it for a while as he passively shifted his shoulder sockets around, looking for an optimal setup. It soon settled on increasing the shoulders' and pauldrons' size and setting the two sets of arms vertically from each other.

While it looked a bit more awkward, it offered much a much better range of movement. Atlas nodded, satisfied with the results for now and searched around in the spatial ring laying in the palm of the lower right arm for suitable weapons. This time it equipped itself with two longswords in the upper arms and shortswords held in a reverse grip in the lower arms.

Nodding to itself again, the golem kicked open the bronze doors to reveal a familiar boss room, though slightly changed. A raised platform whereupon a single figure stood, eight feet tall and imposing just like the first time Atlas saw it. A balcony circling the entire room was filled with armoured stone figures frozen in a cheering pose.

The room it woke up in when it was just a statue.

Atlas stepped onto the platform, but unlike the first time the armoured figure watched it with interest, "You're back, do you wish to prove your mettle, or will you flee again?"

This made the golem pause; didn't it only start moving after the boss died? How did it know what happened after? It shook its head, and it didn't really need to know. "I will prove my mettle," Atlas replied, the mechanical nature of its voice nearly gone.

With the same ghastly laugh as last time, the armoured figure raised its sword and took the shield off its back, "Very well, have at thee!" It shouted as it dashed forward.

...

Atlas looked over its body, there were quite a few scratches, but none were deeper than a single centimetre. The Boss was certainly an adept fighter, and even though it was technically an anomalous Boss, it was still only a first-floor Boss. If Atlas was just a regular dual-wielding adventurer, things would have turned out differently, but with four arms and a weapon in each, the Boss quickly fell behind and took several heavy blows.

As it turned to dust, it laughed again and left a single word behind, "Nifty."

The stairs to the next floor showed themselves, but no chest appeared, 'Does the first floor not give rewards?' It thought to itself, and then it realized something was off.

'𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘳, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦?'

Atlas woke up on the second floor, inside this exact room, but now it was here on the first floor. The only difference was that the golem itself wasn't present because it was the challenger. Atlas looked around the balcony; from its memory, every statue is the same except for the one that it woke up in being, obviously, gone.

'𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘧𝘵 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥? 𝘐 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘩, 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘰... 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰. 𝘐𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭? 𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘐'𝘮 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘏𝘮𝘮.'

Atlas thought on the matter for a few moments but eventually threw it to the back of its mind; while learning more about the way things worked was interesting and possibly even helpful, it knew that it wouldn't be able to come to any useful conclusions in a short amount of time unless it went deeper into the labyrinth.

Atlas moved on and descended the stairs. At the bottom was the usual safe-room lit with the calming blue crystals, an engraving on the center of the floor showing 'Floor 2'.

The golem nodded to itself; this should mean that there is only a singular second floor, and the branching paths indeed start from here-on out. It double-checked its status and storage; the fight with the boss didn't make a dent in its stats, proving that it would need to fight more powerful opponents to raise them further.

It wanted to figure out how many branching paths existed and map out the second floor, if possible. It also didn't want to go down the 'Z' path again, and it wanted to fight as many different things as possible to increase its repertoire of skills and perhaps fight bosses that didn't remind it of its old world.