I looked up.

Far above me, casting a huge shadow was the floating island. Right now I could only see the jagged bottom that seemed to be made from a brown rock, but now that I was this close, I finally realized just how big the island actually was. It always looked smaller from far away but it probably spanned four or five kilometers across.

Judging how far up it was, was a bit trickier since that was something I never really had to do before. The size made it seem somewhat close-ish, but that was most likely a trick of the eye. I couldn’t get an accurate read on the distance, which was a bit of an issue since my only way up was void jump, and I kind of needed to know the approximate distance. Sure, I could correct mid-air with leap, but if I fucked it up too badly I was in for a bad landing.

Now, I had a few nasty landings at high speed behind me and my high constitution score made sure it didn’t outright kill me, but I never tried falling from way up high. From what I knew about terminal velocity, the maximum speed I could achieve just by falling shouldn’t be too high, since I was small and didn’t weigh much. So I should be fine even if I fell from a very high place. Still, what if I was wrong?

It was one thing to know something in theory, and another thing entirely to put it to the test with yourself as the guinea pig.

On my way over I had killed a few monsters and managed to level up one more time, which left me with a whole six unspent skill points since I hadn’t spent any since evolving. I quickly assigned them all to constitution to give myself a slightly better chance of not ending up as a pancake.

I took another look upwards, the edge of the island almost directly above me. Three? No, maybe a four-times charged void jump should get me up there… hopefully. Not seeing a point in stalling any longer, I started casting the spell and overcharging it until I was happy. I actually put in a little more than four times the charge since I was nervous, but eventually, the only thing left to do was jump through the hole in space.

Fuck me, I wish I could see what was on the other side of this portal.

I mentally prepared myself and jumped, immediately emerging several kilometers in the sky. Fascination briefly overtook me as I could see what was on top of the island before I started falling and remembered that I should probably do something. My estimate was pretty accurate, apparently, since I fell past the edge immediately, although a bit further away than I originally thought I’d be.

Not wanting to put my terminal velocity theory to the test I activated leap to jump off the air and towards the edge of the island, barely managing to grab on with my arm tentacles. As I dangled there I looked down for only a moment, immediately regretting having done so. I quickly pulled myself up and over the edge, intent on never looking down there again. It would seem like an instinctive fear of heights was still present.

Intent on banishing the thought of being on an island supported by nothing from my mind, I took a good look at the island’s surface. It was honestly just more of the same, grass, trees, and a small mountain in the distance. The island was mainly populated by flying monsters, which made sense since they were the only ones that could easily get up here. I should probably find some cover so I wasn’t easily spotted from above.

As I was hopping toward a tree, my eyes fell on something close to the small mountain. There was something that stood quite a bit higher than the surrounding trees, almost invisible against the backdrop of the mountain. I focused on the thing, trying to figure out what I was looking at. It was either an oddly shaped rock formation or… a tower. Whatever it was, I was intent on finding out. Maybe this was finally what I was looking for to progress my bonus objective.

After a quick scan of the sky, I rushed out from my temporary cover and toward the forest about one kilometer away. Thankfully, most of the monsters were concentrated around the mountain, using it as a perch. Fights were breaking out regularly as they fought for the best spot to rest, or maybe just for fun, who knows. It allowed me to make it to the forest without issue, though, so I wasn’t about to question their behavior.

As I moved towards the weird tower I made extra sure to pay attention to where I was going. I assumed that there probably wouldn’t be any land-based monsters up here, but I couldn’t know for sure. I was also scared of holes. A fear that was a bit silly, but this was my first time on a floating island, so the possibility of holes dumping you out into the open air existed until I could prove otherwise. I occasionally jumped up a tree to re-orient myself toward the tower, making sure that I didn’t get off course too much.

The closer I got, the more sure I became that it actually was a tower. It didn’t look natural and I was pretty sure I could spot windows at differing heights, although I still didn’t know if there was anything else since the trees blocked my view. It took some time, but eventually, I arrived at my destination.

Still some distance away from the tower I emerged from between the trees into what looked like the remnants of a village, the tower looming above it in the distance. The houses were of a similar build to the one I’d seen at the river, but these ones were made out of stone. Since they had sturdier walls, they were a bit more intact as well, though, still broken. I took a moment to sense any vibrations from the ground, making sure that there weren’t any immediate surprises waiting for me in the first houses, then carefully made my way forward.

I peeked into the closest house, finding more of what I’d already seen at the river. I slowly made my way from house to house, but all I found was broken furniture, empty spaces, and an eerie feeling. Something about an abandoned village was just creepy. I found many things that I would expect from a village, such as a central plaza, bigger houses that probably belonged to the wealthy, and places that were intended for production or pleasure, such as a smithy or an inn.

Yet, not a single soul was present throughout the entire village. Contrary to the house at the river, there were seemingly only flying monsters up here and they mostly stayed at the mountain, so it made a bit more sense that no monsters were present, but I had this odd feeling that there was more to it.

Again.

Eventually, I followed an overgrown road toward the location of the tower. It was the thing I came here for, and I was really curious about what its deal was. What I found was a massive building, shaped like a long rectangle. My first thought was that it looked like some of the older factories from my world, but the more I looked at it, the more different it seemed.

It was built from the same stone the village houses were made of, there were no windows, except for next to the large entrance where both halves of the door had fallen off their hinges a long time ago. There were raised sections of the otherwise flat roof, seemingly spread out at random, and at the back, the tower rose into the sky. Maybe this was a sort of castle or mansion for the local lord? I couldn’t be sure since I never studied alien archeology, but the vibes I got were different.

For starters, there were no obvious defenses visible around the premises. The lack of windows was also weird since all the houses in the village had multiple. So, probably not a mansion, but then, what was it for?

Curiosity demanding to be stilled I made my way past the entrance and into the building proper. Several holes in the roof allowed for light to flood the insides, illuminating the ruins. A large, empty hall greeted me, maybe some sort of reception hall. To both my left and right, two hallways went deeper into the building, both of them quite large, making me think they were like that to either prove status or fit something considerably bigger than a human. At the back, there was another broken doorway through which I could see the base of the tower.

I went down the closest hallway to my right, finding it lined with doorways, some of them even had a door slotted in. There was illegible writing next to each door, partly due to time washing out whatever color was used, and partly because it was in an unfamiliar language consisting of symbols I’d never seen before.

I quickly peeked into the rooms, but all of them were just as deserted as the rest of the village. There were broken desks and something resembling filing cabinets in each room, but all of them contained nothing of substance. The entire hallway consisted of these rooms, obviously some kind of offices.

I returned to the hall and went into the hallway opposite me. More rooms, these ones larger. And judging by the broken contents, most likely some type of laboratory. Or maybe operation rooms? Maybe this used to be some kind of research station or a hospital.

My theory was thrown in disarray when I checked out the other two hallways. All they contained were cells. Cells of varying sizes, all of them barred with thick metal bars, the only thing that was intact, not even rust had accumulated on the strange metal. It also explained the weird raised parts of the roof, since some of the larger cells extended well upwards of it. What the hell was kept in these cells? Monsters?

I couldn’t find anything of interest in the large building, so I instead went out the back and toward the tower. Just like most doors in this place, the tower's entrance was a gaping hole. Immediately to the right of the entrance was a stairway leading upwards, and after seeing that the bottom floor just contained more “office space” I decided to go up.

Occasionally during the ascent, there would be a break in the stairs, providing access to another room, none of them interesting. I climbed and climbed ever higher, curious about what I’d find at the top. When I finally arrived at the top I was faced with a completely empty, circular room. Aside from the window at the far side, there was absolutely nothing of interest.

Disappointment already setting in, I noticed a blue shimmer from the wall, redirecting my eyes to check it out. Upon closer inspection, there were drawings on the walls! The paint that was used seemed to lightly reflect the light, the resulting blue shimmer reminding me of the system screens. I started looking at the paintings and quickly realized that they seemed to be telling some sort of story.

They mostly featured these monstrous-looking humanoids. At first glance, they reminded me of the xenomorphs from a certain movie series from earth, but they were more human. They were walking upright and seemed to be wearing clothing over their natural armor which gave them a jagged look. A tail extended behind them, which some of them seemed to use as an impromptu chair.

The first part showed the creatures around their houses, which looked to be built in the same style the houses of the village were. Something about the way they were drawn told me that they were confused about something. In the next part, they were attacked by a horde of monsters, valiantly trying to defend themselves and their families. And the final part showed a scene of their victory over the horde, as well as them locking away some monsters behind bars.

How curious.

Just when I’d looked at the last painting, the system piped up, presenting me with a new choice.

Congratulations!

You have discovered a trace of an ancient civilization! (1/3)

Would you like to play the memory?

Y/N