Chapter 4: Undead, Boneheaded Summoner

"Whaddya mean I can't go!?"

"I mean you can't go to the surface, Jim..!"

"Damn. Guess I'll grapple."

Jim began hooking and swinging across the open caves of the underground. In earlier days, Jim enjoyed doing this, but his undying curiosity to what lies on the surface and his bony buddies' refusal to let him see for himself have made swinging less fun. Wanting to have fun doing what is much less fun to him, the skeleton swung to a nearby cave he had not seen before. Once he arrived, Jim resumed swinging across the area until he grappled onto a falling boulder set to fall by a giant shelly stepping on a pressure plate.

"OH SHIII- '' Jim fell through the roof of an abandoned house and fell flat onto the floor. Luckily for him, the boulder fell outside of the house and couldn't run him over. The house Jim fell into was an unusual one— the normal abandoned underground houses were small with 1-3 rooms and nothing inside but a table and a chest. This house, however, was a wider house with 5 different chests. There was also a shadewood table with a book titled "History of the Jungle Tyrant, Yharim by Rogue Joseph" laying on top. Jim looked around and considered seeing what lies in the chests, and he decided to check the one closest to him— the second farthest to the right, which contained a Marrow. As he was about to uncover the bony bow, a voice shouted, "HEY!" Jim yelped and made a run for the leftmost gold chest containing a Slime Staff before grappling out of the house.

When out of reach for whoever was in that house, Jim stared wondrously at the staff he uncovered. He swatted a nearby giant shelly with the staff, barely phasing it. "What the hell kind of staff can't do its job?" Jim then swung the staff in the air, creating a baby slime. He yelped and kicked the gelatinous creation away from him. The baby slime came hopping right back towards him and began attacking the same giant shelly he whacked with the staff. Jim watched curiously as the slime absorbed the suffocating shelly. "Interesante.."

The skeleton called off his slime minion and was about to continue swinging from place to place again before realizing he could go to the surface in secret. "After all, I have means of self-defense, right?"

Jim surprisingly easily strolled through a path leading to the surface. "I.. ugh.. Stinky Bones, we're gonna have a talk after this," the mildly disappointed skeleton murmured under his breath. His disappointment was quickly turned into panic when a mana bolt hit him off-guard. He quickly turned to face a chubby, somewhat tan girl with an orange robe and short, brown hair with a rose on it. Before he could say anything, the girl bumped into and passed him in a hurry.

"Hey, fatass!" Jim summoned his slimy friend to grab the girl by her foot and trip her. The girl looked back at him with an offended look. Before she could say anything, Jim flinged a grappling hook at her and attempted to pull her. He absolutely could pull her after moving boulders underground, but he decided to insult the girl by pretending to struggle while very lightly pulling on the hook. The girl pulled Jim towards her in response, making him go flying.

"Ok, I give up!"

"Shut the hell up, you lanky sack of marrow."

"So this is why we don't come to the surface.."

"You know what, there's no time to deal with you! He's still coming!"

"Hmm.. must be nice. I'll head west, then."

"HE'S COMING FROM THAT DIRECTION!"

"Oh, what could be bigger and scarier than you that's in that direction?"

As Jim jokingly asked this question to the girl, a wulfrum drone rolled its way to his feet. Jim looked down before ordering his baby slime to destroy it, which it did with almost no effort. "Very scary," Jim muttered sarcastically. The girl tried to explain to him that the drone wasn't what she was talking about, but Jim didn't care enough to listen.

The skeleton headed west before the girl could say anything else. Still worrying about the adventurous skeleton, the girl chased after and followed him. The two dismantled and tore apart wulfrum slimes and drones and collected their shards on their trek. Their stroll led them to a nearby, fairly small desert. They then quickly stumbled upon a hole leading to a desert cavern. "Back where we started but not quite," Jim muttered comically.

"We?"

"Oh hush.. Uh.."

"Honey."

"Hon- wait.. That's your name!?"

"Mhm?"

"FFFHAHAHAAA!"

"Oh! In the sky!"

"The what?" Jim was immediately rammed and knocked into the hole by an antlion charger, much to Honey's amusement. She then pencil dove into the cave after Jim. She pulled out the Mana Rose and swiftly killed the antlion charger that rammed Jim.

"You know what? Fine, let's see if there's any treasure down here."

"You're devilish, woman!"

"Aww, stop it~"

The two traversed the desert cave to find a single Sandstorm in a Bottle and some gold coins. Jim and Honey then fought over who gets the bottle, with Honey winning the bottle after pointing out the fact that Jim already has a Cloud in a Bottle before jabbing him in his nose. The two also found an anvil which the two found unimportant until the cave began to shake immediately afterward.

"Hm. Earthquake?"

"The Desert Scourge!"

"The what?"

"We gotta get the hell out of here, bone man!"

Rather than immediately leave, Jim thought of a few recipes for stuff to make at the anvil right next to them. He proceeded to make full wulfrum armor along with the helmet for himself. Honey kept shouting for him to hurry up and run as he created a Sun Spirit Staff. When finished, he ran past the worried girl out of the house where the anvil laid.

"And the name's Jim!"

Honey urgently followed Jim back to the desert surface and the two of them were greeted with more intense shaking from the ground after barely making it back to the surface.

Desert Scourge rose from the sand. The scourge was massive in size and very clearly intended to make a meal out of the two, but this did not phase Jim. Instead, he summoned a solar spirit and a baby slime to attack the scourge. The solar spirit fired beams of sun energy at Desert Scourge while the baby slime attempted to pulverise it by attacking its body. Honey joined in by firing mana bolts at Desert Scourge. The combined might of Jim and Honey did quite some damage to the scourge until a dried seeker attacked Jim from behind. This gave Desert Scourge an opening to ram Jim with its mandible. It then went to ram Honey until she avoided it with a sandy jump in mid-air. The scourge flung Jim off its mandible before digging underground for a counterattack. While the scourge waited for an opening, Honey killed the dried seekers one-by-one. Jim's baby slime ran towards him as he picked himself up. "If one more mandible pokes a hole in my shirt, I swear to Xeroc-"

Honey knocked Jim out of the way with a mana bolt as Desert Scourge rose from where he stood before. She resumed firing mana bolts at the hungry scourge while Jim yet again lay on the ground. "I can't get up," Jim groaned as he attempted to stand up. The mana bolt had done quite some damage to Jim, though it was a miracle for saving him from Desert Scourge. He then came up with a plan to kill the scourge.

He took a swig of a healing potion as Desert Scourge dove straight towards Honey. He somehow whistled to grab the scourge's attention. The mortally wounded scourge turned away from Honey to head towards Jim in response to the whistle. Jim signaled his baby slime to go inside Desert Scourge's mouth. The gelatinous minion obliged, jumping down the scourge's mouth and tearing up its insides. This caused the Desert Scourge to die just before it could reach Jim. The victorious skeleton sighed in relief.

"..A dried up and gluttonous husk on a constant and voracious search for its next meal.."

A somewhat sad, yet ominous voice had come out of nowhere. Jim was unfamiliar, but threatened by this voice, but Honey had instantly shifted from relief to fear in response to the voice. She turned around to gaze upon a man in yellow armor and long, red hair poking out of the back of his head.

"RUN!" Honey picked up Jim and as far away from the man in yellow as her legs could take her.

When Jim finally had the energy to stand, he and Honey mutually decided to end the desert adventure. Honey asked Jim if she could come underground with him, and he agreed to let her go with him, as she explained to him that she doesn't have a home.

Jim had to explain to Tim and Stinky Bones why he went to the surface and why he bought a Terrarian underground before they agreed not to kill her. After arriving at Jim's rusty, crusty house, Jim asked for an explanation on the guy who gave Honey a panic, but she refused to give one. Jim decided not to pressure her into giving him an explanation due to being tired, and the two watched some television on his old and small television.

The two spent the next two days talking about goblin peons and maulers when Stinky Bones asked Jim to talk with him in private.

"Jim, if you see a man with arctic diving gear down here, report to us immediately. Don't even think about attacking him!"

"Why would I do that?"

"The man is unlike any Terrarian we've seen down here. He has a scarily powerful gun with him!"

"Ok?"

"It's a fish gun that fires 25 bullets in a single shot, and it only seems to get stronger for some reason!"

"Then take his gun."

"Jim, this isn't a fucking joke! He kills anything he sees on sight and extremely quickly! The guy's brutal!"

"You know, you still haven't told me why it's so necessary to kill Terrarians down here, Stinky Bones.."

"..Fine. Terrarians used to use these caves for shelter from Xeroc's disquieting gaze at the moon, just to die from natural causes or from the other creatures down here. Many other Terrarians came down here to run away from the war started by the Jungle Tyrant."

"So why do we have to kill Terrarians if they're just running away from war?"

"Because the Terrarians have started coming to the caverns for the jewels and ores that lie down here rather than asylum. Greedy bastards..!"

"Ok, but how come?"

"We don't have much evidence, but we've come to the conclusion that the Jungle Tyrant had lessened his control over Terraria. The need to run to the caverns for asylum had lessened with it."

"But still.. The Terrarians are just looking for treasure, aren't they?"

"Jim.. People like this diving gear man are why we kill Terrarians. They're so determined to get their damn gold."

"You know what? Fine. I'll report this man to you when I see him."

"Good! The man is merciless, Jim! He shot and killed Rattles Magoo, too."

"...Rattles?"

"..Yes?"

"Where the fuck is he!?"