The air grew colder as Ashen approached the outer fringes of the Machine King's Domain—a land of brass mountains, smoking furnaces, and sky-piercing towers made of iron and cogwork. Lightning crackled overhead, not from clouds but from the gargantuan energy conduits that powered the realm. The corrupted constructs of the fallen King stood like frozen sentinels, their hollow eyes glowing faint red.
Ashen, cloaked in the Swamp Guardian's Mantle, halted at the threshold of the zone. A ripple of system messages unfolded before him:
[You have entered: Machine King's Domain - Level 120+ Restricted Zone]
[Warning: Realm-wide debuff active - Mana Recovery reduced by 50%]
[Force Energy Field Detected. Abyssal Resonance will be halved.]
"Figures," Ashen muttered, tightening his grip on his Elemental Staff. "This is no place for the weak."
He took one step forward, and the ground shifted beneath him. Mechanical spiders emerged, their bodies clanking as they skittered across rusted steel.
