Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Party of 2

After finally gathering his thoughts together, the man inside the room finally responded.

"Yes, I am, can you help me out here? I've been stuck in here since I woke up." said the man inside with hope glimmering in his eyes at the first sight of another person.

"Sure." said Madison while approaching the door.

"Here let me unlock it for you." said the man while fumbling against the door to unlatch it.

*Click*

The man unlocked the door and tried to pull the door open but it seems that the damage to the door from the monsters made the door impossible to open regularly. "*tsk* The door is busted from the damage, I can't open it. Can you open it on your side?" said the man with a grim look on his face thinking the woman outside wouldn't be able to help him.

"Sure, might want to stand to the side." said Madison standing a foot away from the door and getting into a fighting stance.

The man was confused as to what she meant but as he heard her moving around and then stop he immediately moved to the side, wondering what she was about to do.

"Hyah." Madison grunted a bit as she kicked the door in with a large amount of force, causing the door to fly into the room and slam into the wall on the other side of the room.

"Holy mother of-" The man inside the room jumped in fright seeing the large metal door that withstood countless strikes by monsters get so easily destroyed by this woman.

When Madison entered the room she looked around and recognized it as the armory. Since all of the lockers were still shut she knew that they were still locked. She wanted to assimilate the guns in here, and possibly make some for herself but she still had to address the current unknown in the room.

"Hi?" said Madison as she looked to her left seeing the man still frozen in place after seeing the door get destroyed so easily. When the man finally came out of his stupor all that came out was, "Hi."

"So, mind telling me your name?" said Madison trying to break the awkward silence in the room.

"Oh, it's Marcus. Marcus Folly. Mind if I know yours?" said Marcus finally mustering up the courage to speak to Madison.

"Madison Kondark. How long have you been here?"

"I have been here for 3 days. I woke up here and by the time I had tried to leave there were monsters already at the door here." Marcus said directing his hand to the newly made walkway now that the door was gone.

"Have you at all leveled up?" Madison said, she was thinking about taking him with her but if he hadn't even done anything to level up than he would only hold her back. But since she was only Level 8 it wouldn't be by much.

"*sigh* No I haven't. I was terrified about what was outside after the first night and I haven't left since."

Madison began looking over Marcus and noticed that he looked pretty thin. Probably due to only eating rations for 3 days straight. "Here." Madison pulled out a water bottle and some food she cooked from wolf meat. She had some stored up for when she ran out of bread but since she was now a Machina, she didn't need to eat.

"Are you sure you don't need it?" said Marcus. Madison could already see the drool on his face and chuckled lightly at the sight of it.

"I don't need it." Madison said shoving the food into his arms. She then approached the lockers and asked Marcus, "Have you been able to find the key for this? I'd rather not rip it off if I don't have to."

"No, I think it was in one of the other rooms here, but that could take a long time to find it."

"Guess I can also try this actually..." Madison put her hand on the lock and a small cloud of nano-machines began eating away at the lock.

[Object Assimilated]

[Object [Lock] Added to Neural Database]

"I can use this." said Madison before opening the now lock-less locker door to reveal an array of sidearms and assault rifles. There were both dummy rounds and live rounds to the side which she proceeded to assimilate everything here.

[Objects Assimilated]

[Objects [9mm bullets][9mm pellets][5.56mm rifle bullets][5.56mm rifle pellets] have been Assimilated and combined to make [9mm Ammunnition] and [5.56mm Rifle Ammunition]]

[Objects [M9 Beretta] and [M4 Carbine] have been Assimilated]

[Ammunition and Weapons have been added to Neural Database]

The information about the weapons and their respective ammunition were then imprinted into her mind and she could tell how to make another if she wanted to. She also wanted to make her own version to add a special touch to it.

"Now let's try this, shall we?" said Madison with a sly grin on her face. She stuck both palms out in front of her face up and began to use her Construction skill to create a rifle.

[Construction]

[Please specify weapon type]

[Sidearm][Rifle]

'Sidearm'

Madison wanted to design a sidearm for herself but she wanted it to be her own. First, she noticed that even though she only assimilated 2 types of ammunition, she could create any type as long as she had enough EN to supply it. Second, she noticed that her construction skill did not just create duplicates of things that were assimilated. She could make her own as long as it had the same fundamentals as the original(AKA a gun still has to be a gun.)

Madison then designed her sidearm to be like a hand cannon. She designed it with a large chamber and was able to combine multiple rounds into one with added speed if the need ever arises. The barrel was about about a full foot long and had 3 vents on each side for when the bullets were combined, therefore not causing recoil from the added firepower. She then created a holographic sight with a thermal switch if she wanted to use it.

After configuring it the way she wanted to, she added the Kondark Crest(See discord) onto the side. After looking at her new weapon for a minute she decided to make a duplicate of it. After seeing that her work was done, she decided to name the type of hand cannon that she made as she might want to market these, or at least something similar. She could easily make a lot of money off of them with her modifications.

[Object type [Hand Cannon] created]

[Hand Cannon model [Talon] created]

Madison decided to call her Hand Cannons of this type Talon due to its sharp-looking design(See discord.)

Madison put her Hand Cannons in her inventory until she needed them. She looked over at the repeatedly baffled Marcus and just shrugged before beginning to walk out of the room.

As Madison was leaving the room Marcus called out to her after finally regaining his composure. "Wait."

Madison stopped and looked over her shoulder and squinted a bit, indicating that she wasn't going to wait long for him to speak up.

"Can I join your party? It looks like you're alone. I will do my best to not hold you back and get stronger. Please I don't have anywhere to go." said Marcus pleading to go with Madison. He wanted to go with her because he needed protection and because he wanted to get stronger. Seeing how strong Madison was he knew he could learn a lot.

Madison slightly looked away pondering as to whether this was worth the effort or not. After a minute she decided to bring Marcus with her, but gave a warning to him before leaving. "I will help you get stronger and I won't let you die if I can help it. However...if you hold me back or become more of a headache than help, I will not hesitate to leave you." said Madison before walking out, but not before showing a sly grin on her face.

Marcus felt a small chill go down his spine seeing the smile that Madison showed. "I'll do my best." said Marcus with a crooked smile on his face. He was very thankful though that Madison decided to bring him with her.