A/N: Welcome back! Can you believe this story has over 200 views? This story is slowly moving up in the world...of Terraria fanfiction. It's only a matter of time before this story becomes recommended on Terraria's TV Tropes page! *sniffle* ...Wow, I'm getting too ambitious for my own good, aren't I. Let's just focus on the current chapter, shall we?
Review Replies:
Mewtation151: YEAH CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Both with Brett and knowing when not to smash things you're not familiar with!
Imagination is king: Well, you can't make air fresher in Terraria, so. And you will get more NPCs, trust me I've got it all planned out, have patience!
LeoRayz: Technically this review was for the Prologue, but it was just so nice I gotta respond to it here, thank you so much! :3
Chapter 11: Heartbreaker
Zia had washed up and was back in the house, sitting at the table across from Brett. "So, what's this 'next step' you mentioned?"
"Glad you asked!" Brett said, smiling confidently. "Well- this step technically has two parts, but it's one main thing with a smaller thing, kinda more like a 'kill two birds with one stone' situation, just to kinda-"
"Brett," Zia said, to get the man back on track.
"Right, sorry," Brett replied sheepishly. "Anyways! The main part- you need to improve your strength. Did you find a heart-shaped red stone underground when you went into the ice cave?"
"Uh- yes," Zia replied. "Wait, let me guess- I have to go find more?"
"You got it! Life Crystals- the best way for an adventurer to get their strength up!" Brett explained. "Let's see...if you already found one, I'd say...four more should be enough for you to take on the Eye of Cthulhu again."
"Four? Um...I guess I can do that," Zia replied, nodding. "What about the other part?"
"It involves getting another Suspicious-Looking Eye," Brett began.
Zia frowned. "I...don't know about that. I may have lucked out finding one in a Chest, but I don't think that's gonna happen a second time."
"Maybe not...but there's more than one way to get the Eye," Brett replied. "You've killed Demon Eyes, right? Did they drop Lenses?"
"Yeah- I've got one," Zia explained. "Why?"
"Because you can make a new Suspicious-Looking Eye with six of them," the man explained. "Of course, you'd need to find a Demon Altar to do that, but you can find those easily in the Corruption."
"Demon Altar...?" Zia asked, before remembering something. "Wait! Are those the purple spiky things I saw in the chasm?"
"Probably," Brett replied, shrugging. "But, you should really focus on getting more Life Crystals."
Zia nodded. "I assume they're underground? Like the first one I found?"
"You got it," Brett said, nodding. "They might even glow a little bit, so that'll help you locate them."
"Okay...Heart Crystals, underground, maybe get Lenses if I can," Zia listed out, more as a reminder to herself than Brett.
"And try not to die, please," Brett added with a little smile.
"I'll...definitely try," Zia replied, returning the smile a little bit before turning to walk out the door.
Zia still didn't really want to go down into the first cave, mostly out of fear she wasn't strong enough to survive the Hoplites still. So, she made her way back to the ice cave. Along the way, a pair of Demon Eyes trailed after her- which was exactly what she needed. It also gave her the opportunity to test out her new Musket. Zia...wasn't a very good shot, it seemed, although that could be attributed to the Eyes' small size. Despite that, the strong Musket Balls were able to do quite a bit of damage to the creatures, taking them out in a few shots. Only one of them dropped a Lens, though- oh well, she still had two out of six!
Soon, Zia made her way back into the depths of the ice cave, which was still as frigid as before. She made her way down the tunnels, through the chambers and water areas, and made sure to be extra careful on the thin ice age had fallen through before. All the while, she did battle with mostly Ice Slimes and Cave Bats, and a few Ice Bats (which chilled her so many times it wasn't even funny). After all this, she found herself back in the chamber she had left off in- the one with the cabin, where she had found the Suspicious-Looking Eye, and all the Silver Ore.
Zia looked around the room- she hadn't looked around the area too much when she had first entered, mostly because she was focused on the Ore and house. Now, though, it seemed this area was basically a dead end. No other tunnels or openings of any kind...and no Life Crystals.
"Mm...that's no good..." Zia said to herself, frowning. She hadn't seen any other routes on her way down...could this be the end of the caverns? No, it couldn't be! There had to more to these caves, surely- they had to go deeper! The girl turned around and started to walk back...only to hear a faint squeak, from a bat likely. Growling, she pulled out her Silver Broadsword, ready to fight. However...nothing appeared. Zia looked around in confusion- she heard that faint squeaking again, but there was still nothing in the room.
She listened a bit more closely- the noises were there again, soft as they were. It seemed like they were coming from...beneath her? Zia looked down at the icy ground beneath her, furrowing her brow. Then, her eyes widened slightly and she pulled out her Pickaxe. It was just a hunch, but if she was correct...she may have found where the rest of the caves were. She started digging through the layers of ice, taking much of the freezing water with her (curse you, gravity). After several seconds of digging, she found herself tumbling into an opening.
Sure enough, there was another tunnel down here, leading to the right. The water spilled out into the long room, soaking the many Cave Bats flying around. They squeaked in anger, and flew at Zia. All it took was a few swings of her Broadsword to kill them, allowing her to continue down the now wet tunnel. The cave was mostly horizontal, but slanted downwards slightly. Zia made sure to keep a Torch out in order to help her see any threats, but she didn't find any other monsters as she walked.
The girl soon found herself in another opening. It seemed to be a crossroads of sorts, only with caves instead of paths. One cave to the right seemed to lead upwards a bit, another cave on the right led down a little, and one to the left led downwards as well, albeit more sloped down. Zia jumped down into the center, looking around- where in the world should she start?
"Okay, this is easy to decide..." Zia said to herself...before saying the age-old 'eenie-meenie-miney-moe' sequence. It wasn't long before a decision was reached- she would take the upper right cave first. She had to use some Rope Coils to get up there, and eventually made her way through the opening. The cave sloped up a bit, but Zia didn't find anything other than Pots that held Coins. A few dead Ice Slimes later, the tunnel began to slant downwards, eventually leading to another opening.
The room was long, and had some Ore on the far side- Silver, it seemed. The opening also allowed Zia to drop down onto the roof of another underground cabin, this one only one room it seemed. She dropped down into the room through the Platforms on the roof, and looked around. A Door to the right, a statue in the shape of a sword to the left, and a Golden Chest in the center. When Zia looked through it, she found some more Lesser Healing Potions, some Silver Coins, and even 4 Gold Bars. In addition, she found a pair of yellow Potions, the bottles being long and slender. Zia wracked her brain, trying to remember what these ones were called...Ironskin, right?
She sighed and headed towards the door. "Man, still no Life Crystals...I swear, it's gonna take forever to find-"
The moment Zia walked out the door, however, she found herself bumping into something. When she looked down to see, lo and behold, a Life Crystal. Zia stared at it in shock, saying to herself, "Now how did I miss this...?"
Shaking her head, she immediately used her Pickaxe to remove the Crystal from its spot, then quickly pocketed it- she'd absorb it once she found the other three she needed to collect. She went over to mine the Silver Ore- 12 pieces in all. Zia looked around to see any other openings. There was a cave to the left, but that seemed to lead back to the chamber she had come from earlier. She spotted another opening in the ground not far from where she had found the Life Crystal. Shrugging, she hopped right into it, grasping a Torch.
This tunnel seemed to make another 'Z' shape, a few Pots containing Coins and Torches scattered about. When she was towards the bottom of the passage, she saw the red glow that signified another Life Crystal. Zia immediately went for it, only to be interrupted when she saw an Undead Viking and an Ice Bat making their way towards her. She immediately took out her Musket and focused fire at the Viking. The bullets did pretty good damage, and was able to finish off the monster with a few swings of her Broadsword. The Ice Bat also didn't last long against the blade, and so Zia was able to walk towards the Life Crystal and collect it.
With a newly renowned confidence after having found two Crystals, the girl made her way forward with a smile. She came to a rather huge opening, with a ledge leading to the start of a mine track. Zia jumped down towards it, seeing a mine cart resting on the tracks. She hopped into it, keeping a Torch out to see, and the cart careened down the steep slope of the tracks. The cave room seemed to speed past very quickly, and Zia barely had time to register the Cave Bats flying towards her. Switching her Torch for her Broadsword, she cut the creatures down as she sped past.
The track leveled off in the air, but Zia could see another drop coming up. She also saw something else...an elevated part of the room, not too big, but on it rested another Life Crystal. However, Zia was unable to slow down enough to jump off and grab it, and so wound up speeding down the track once more. With a shout, she tried to slow down, the wheels on the cart making a screeching sound as she did. Soon, the cart stopped at last...at the actual end of the track. Zia found herself being flung out of the mine cart, through some thin ice, and into the water beneath.
After sulking for a bit, Zia climbed out and made her way back to the mine cart, where she proceeded to slowly and carefully make her way back up the track. Soon, she was above the spot where the Life Crystal was once again, and proceeded to jump out of the cart towards it. She landed safely and utilized her Pickaxe to harvest the heart-shaped object before climbing back into the mine cart and driving it back to the bottom of the track.
"Okay...I just need one more..." Zia reminded herself as she cautiously walked across the thin ice. "Yeah! One more! I can do this!"
Then, she heard a little clicking sound beneath her. She looked down...and noticed a round shadow rapidly growing around her. With a terrified yelp, Zia dove out of the way just as a boulder crashed onto the ground where she had been standing. She sat up, eyes wide- if she had been just a few seconds slower...well, that would have been the worst headache ever. Then, so quickly sat up- the boulder was rolling towards her. With a scream, Zia bolted away from the rolling stone like something out of a movie, ignoring her surroundings. This resulted in her slipping on some ice, and practically flying off the ledge into a large chamber.
She ended up landing through some thin ice and falling into some very deep water. She landed on her feet and stood in the icy water, holding her breath and examining her surroundings. There was an opening to the right, large enough for her to fit through. Zia made her way towards it, although the water in her armor slowed her down significantly. By the time she was presumably halfway down the tunnel, she could almost feel her face turning blue. She had to use her Pickaxe to dig a hole into the ceiling of the cave where she could get some air (a life hack Andrew had taught her during what she called 'The Goldfish Incident').
I swear, if there's nothing down here, I'm going to become a Jellyfish serial killer. Zia thought to herself bitterly. Either that, or I'll get hypothermia. Neither are very good options.
Luckily, the cave didn't lead to a dead end. In fact, it led to a somewhat small room that was partially dry...and sitting on a snowy ledge just above the water was a fourth Life Crystal. She grinned and said to herself, "Finally! Now I can get out of-"
However, two Ice Slimes stood in front of it, but these ones were different- they were spiky, and slightly bigger it appeared. Zia immediately took out her Musket and fired at the monsters. One took a direct hit, the other hopped over the bullet and launched a few ice spikes at Zia. She backed up to dodge before firing some more, managing to hit both Spiked Ice Slimes. However, they still hopped towards her, floating over the water as they did. Zia fired again, barely managing to dodge their icicle projectiles. With a few swings of her sword, the two Slimes were knocked back, giving the girl the opportunity to fire at them one more time, killing then both.
With a grin, Zia collected the Gel and Coins left behind, but her real goal was sitting right in front of her. A few swings of her Pickaxe later, she had collected her fourth and final Life Crystal (for now, at least). Now that she had all four, she took them out and held all four in her hands. The Crystals all shattered into a red light, one by one, and flowed into her body just like the first time. Zia was feeling stronger and stronger each time- plus, the energy from the Crystals warmed her for a few moments!
When all that was done, Zia pulled out a Recall Potion. She had found and absorbed four Life Crystals- her 'mission' was complete! Now, she had to focus on finding Lenses...that shouldn't be too hard, right? It had to still be night- she may lose sleep, but the quicker she got all the Lenses she needed, the better.
And so, Zia took a quick swig of her Recall Potion and returned home.
A/N: And with that, Zia is at 200 HP! She's on her way to becoming a tank! Or not- give her time guys, she's still kinda new to this. But now that she's got more health, and is hunting for flying eyeballs, what else is there to prepare for? Well, next time, we'll get to see...what...she has to do...dear goodness, this is not one of my better author notes. What can I say, this chapter was just Zia farming for Life Crystals, I've got nothing to say about that! AGH, just please be back for the next chapter. Byyyye!
