Friggin’ left arm. Wasn’t even the cool arm with melee augments. Nothing but ranged weaponry and repair functions. The right arm, now that would be useful in a place with gravity. The secondary systems weren’t weight dependent, only volume bounded. No wait. It still wouldn’t be able to use it, the arm was too heavy for it to lift without the torso and leg support. At least the human was still coming with it, and was probably strong enough to support the thing’s weight.

This would be so much easier if it could just not have gravity exist.

Problem was the initial thrust. Even if it were to have the human use the arm to throw it up into the atmosphere, it wouldn’t be enough force to break it free of the gravitational pull. Despite the astrological improbability, gravity seemed to be approximately one standard gravity unit. Why the gravity unit was so high it had never really understood, considering that the base only had a .06 unit spacetime bend, but apparently on some planet that sourced the system one was a somewhat significant number. All the other numbers associated with one seemed entirely arbitrary though. Why would one unit not just equate to ten meters of acceleration per second even, rather than very slightly less than that?

Then you get a meter, which is defined based on the speed of light. Problem was, once it had looked up the speed of light and it was apparently just based on meters per second. Every term of measurement was apparently at its core based on arbitrary nonsense and circular logic. On the other hand every bit of technology to have come from its creators had been based on that same thing, so whatever. Inventions born of madness, with the system that created them no better.

It owed its origins to that system as well. Probably best not to think about that.

Speaking of things that didn’t make any sense, the sun was flying off to the side of the sky. While it had been approaching the mountain, the ball of fire was on the right of the peak, and now it was far to the left of it. The first time it had noticed the discrepancy, it was within margin of error, considering that it had been changing its reference point during transit. Now though, it was undeniable that the solar cycle of this place differed from that of pretty much any planet type it could think of.

Plant life was everywhere, actual life was here as well, and gravity was one. Combine that with the glaring defiance of naturally occuring planet rotation, and the conclusion was inescapable. This was a designed system. What it was made for wasn’t immediately clear yet, but it probably wasn’t good. Considering how it got here, that probability dropped even further.

“So, think that lightning is going to keep going for much longer?”

The human looks over at the forest. Bolts had been slamming down into the wooded area nonstop since they had started up the mountain, and the haze of ionized air pointing across the horizon glimmers during the gaps between strikes.

“If it does, anything struck by it will die. The bolts grow in power as the moon waxes, and their tribulation is further multiplied by the strength of the creature that draws the heaven’s ire.”

And that was some important information. Growing powerful was disincentivised by the application of lightning to the face, and doing so under the cover of darkness even more so. With readily available information on the commonality of lightning strikes though, there was even more of an incentive to grow more powerful during the daylight hours. Whatever this purpose was, it involved growing massively while making your level of power easily known. Which implied something, probably along the lines of generating a mindset of straightforward adherence to a path forward. If upgrading your arsenal quietly meant you get struck by lightning, it made sneak attacks less useful.

Good thing it had a perfect counter to that kind of thing.

Speaking of which, the lightning was slowing down at a noticeable rate. Whatever had been causing the power creep in the forest was no longer a factor. It made a mental note to not go in there.