Nanomemes: Yeah, the Guide gives me 'Dad' vibes somehow even though that's not part of the game, so I'm shaping Andrew up to be kinda like... maybe a possible father figure. And thanks! Little as I get, any reviews at all motivates me a lot, so I'll be sure to see where I can go with this story!
The truly amazing (broken) thing about this world, Mikan thought, was the benefit of 'item research' and duplication granted to entities dubbed the 'Player'. Whatever the developers were thinking, it's a pretty weird decision, in her opinion. But in terms of in-game lore, it's the best damn decision they've made, and she wished she could blow some kisses to whoever made the game.
Something about logic, if she recalled properly. It's not like she spent her time researching meta details of games, nor had she ever actually played Terraria.
"Some fourth wall breaking would be helpful right now," the girl mused - not that that's allowed, of course. Get a grip, you OC.
Nevertheless, the red haired girl had quickly returned to make some actual armor before going out into the wilderness again.
She swiftly made some wooden armor for safety reasons, before redirecting her attention to the ores she had collected.
According to Andrew, she needed to craft a Furnace to be able turn the lumps of ores into bars. 'Smelting', or something. And what do you know, good ol' Andy also knew how to make furnaces! Twenty stone blocks, any four wood blocks, and three torches - all things she had infinite amounts of at this point!
And so her first crafted furnace, which she now named 'Furny', came into existence.
Then, with the ores she had collected, Mikan... ended up not crafting any armor.
Through some sheer brilliance of her mind, the girl tried putting the ores into the item research slot, and was shocked to discover that she required a hundred of each ore to be researched in order to duplicate infinite amounts. Thus, began her new side-quest - collect enough ore to research and duplicate!
...was it worth staying weak and not having better defenses? Probably not.
But the wooden armor she wore was something, and hopefully, the weak stats they gave made a difference, even a small one.
And so, out she went, back into the wilderness to explore some more!
"Oh, wait," Howard called. "If you don't mind, could you add another room to this house? It'd get pretty cramped if all of us slept in one room, and, you know... uncomfortable."
Mikan blinked. ...seriously, can I kill NPCs? she wondered.
...
After constructing a second room on top of her base of operations - and some more rooms just to be safe, leading to a total of five rooms - and an ineffective session of trying to slash Howard with her sword, Mikan was soon on her way back to the cave she found leading deeper underground.
Avoiding the hordes of slime (there were well over twenty that she counted in her spare time) was pretty easy.
The wings she began her journey with, as weak as they were, helped her fly to the skies (okay, not that high) to stay clear of direct contact with them.
And then... a quick infinite wood block restocking helped her close the cave's entrance quickly, making sure they can't come inside.
Of course, there were a number of slimes waiting inside as well, but not as much as the outside at that time, so she dealt with them a bit more easily.
Her pet finch Fino was also helpful, of course. ...somewhat.
"Still... even the underground of this world isn't safe from the wack crazy shenanigans Terraria has, huh?" Mikan noted as she looked behind her. Many times, she had come across large spaces in the cavern, which made her feel better but at the same time, a bit more cautious due to the possibilities of monsters hiding basically anywhere as well.
The weirdest thing she had discovered, however, were... trees made of stones growing underground.
And instead of leaves, well...
Apparently gemstones can be grown like plants in this world.
"Whoever made this game clearly smokes some stupid shit while developing it," the girl muttered to herself. Unfortunately, she didn't collect enough of the gem tree's grown rubies to be able to duplicate it. However, she had also obtained two 'Ruby Gemcorns' - which she supposed are the gemstone version of the acorns for planting trees (what the heck?) - and, having infinite supply of acorns and four rubies collected, she made her third to fifth Ruby Gemcorn and met the limit for researching it.
And now, with infinite Ruby Gemcorn supply, she randomly planted them all around this open underground space.
Why not? She can come back to check anytime anyways. Trees seemed to grow regardless of being watered or not, so...
"Man, I can't stop saying this, but all this stuff is so broken," the girl muttered. "Oh, well. Time to go, Fino."
As Fino finished killing off a random annoying bat that had been aiming for her, the two descended further into the darkness, Mikan hoping she could find some new, broken equipment - not literally broken, of course.
That's when she eventually stumbled upon something beautiful.
Sitting alone within a different area, was a marvelous, pink heart made of crystal.
Mikan stopped batting some more, well, bats, away and stared at the jewel sitting in front of her eyes.
"Whoa... what the- ack! Give me some time!" she hissed to the bats that continued to swarm around her.
Getting frustrated, she rushed to the heart and took out her infinite supply of wooden blocks and caged herself, free from the pesky dark-dwelling monsters around her. With some spare time to rest and catch her breath, she stared once more at the crystal heart.
"Oh, I can tell this has something to do with health." The girl swung her sword at the jewel - nothing happened. "...mining it is," she said and took out her iron pickaxe, finally smashing it into a single, smaller piece of crystal heart that was absorbed into her inventory.
Mikan then checked her virtual space to see what it was.
"Life Crystal... increases life by 20! Neat." The girl then looked below the description. "...ten to research and duplicate, huh? Hmm... maybe I should save this..."
...on second thoughts, there's sure to be more Life Crystals around to discover, right? That means she could gather ten to research anytime, so... maybe it was better to use this one now to at least survive longer. Having to put up a wooden barricade around herself every few minutes is pretty tiresome, afte rall.
Contemplating it for a while, Mikan eventually shrugged.
"Ah, whatever." She decided to us the Life Crystal on herself for now - with that, the heart evaporated within her hands, and a glowing mist surrounded her body. In the corner of her eyes, she noticed her life bar ('how did I never see that...?') increase by one heart. "Ooooh. Nice."
As if luck was now on her side, upon properly looking far into the distant, she spotted another Life Crystal lying in wait.
"Huh. Thought I would've noticed that sooner," she said. "...maybe..." The girl looked in the other direction of her 'open'-spaced barricade - no, there wasn't a third Life Crystal waiting for her. "...bummer."
...then again, maybe all the bats swarming around her magic barrier was getting to her.
"Y'know what? Might as well as kill all these little fellas before I go home," the girl muttered. "Gotta collect that other Life Crystal too anyways."
Making a small opening in her barricade, but not wide enough for the bats to correctly fly into her safe haven, the girl then repeatedly stuck her sword through and pulled back while Fino flew out to do its job attacking each creature.
It took a frustratingly long amount of time before the area was finally clear.
With that, she quickly rushed to the second Life Crystal, mined and stored it, and warped back home.
...
"So, how was the underground, lassie?" Howard asked as Mikan stepped into the house.
"Eh, it was fine. How's the new rooms I painstakingly built for you?" the red haired girl asked unenthusiastically.
He took it in stride, letting out a loud, prideful laugh. "Hahaha! Snarky, aren't we? Well, it's perfect!"
"Wish I could kill allies," Mikan muttered.
"Now, now, don't be like that," Andrew said with a chuckle. "It's always better to keep your fellow allies alive."
She snickered. "Not when you play multiplayer. Friendly fire is always funny," she said, to Andrew's confusion, but he let that remark slide. "Anyways, I found some crystal-like hearts in the underground, Life Crystals, they increase my health... if you understand that lingo."
"Sounds like something I could sell," Howard replied. The Merchant then narrowed his eyes. "Did you per chance collect anymore? ...interested in selling them to me?"
"Well..." Mikan paused. Nah, I'll keep them until I can duplicate them. "Nah. Sorry, friend."
"Hoooh boy. What a shame..."
Suddenly, she felt something inside of her pulsing. In the corner of her eyes, a message popped up, akin to the chat function in multiplayer games.
"Katherine the Nurse has arrived!"
Mikan blinked. "Whuh."
"What's the matter?" Andrew asked.
She shrugged. "Um. I just got a notification or something... someone has arrived, I guess," she said and headed to the door. Pushing it open gently, the girl was met with a beautiful blonde standing outside, but sporting a rather cold expression on her face. "...huh."
"...what?" the woman said. "You goin' to let me in, or what?"
"Oh, uh, sure." Mikan stepped aside to let the woman enter, then closed the door. She then quickly duplicated a chair from her menu and set it down, Andrew then pulling it over to an empty side of the table, while Howard whistled to himself.
The new arrival nodded and sat down on the chair, sighing as if she had been through a lot to get here.
Mikan scratched her head. "...so, uh."
"What do you want?" the nurse-attired woman asked.
Andrew cleared his throat. "It'd be nice if you could introduce yourself to us and, perhaps, tell us what you seek," he explained.
"...right." The woman crossed her legs and sighed again. "I'm Katherine. I'm a nurse. Going to be staying here from now on. Nice to meet you."
All Mikan could do was stare at the woman, unsure how to feel.
Seems like a jerk, she mused.