Chapter 5: The Orbs

"You've been in for the tenth time now since I came here only a few days ago, Brian. Just what are you doing these days?"

Brian, laying on the bed, sighed and chuckled at the same time, "I'm trying to figure out how to get down the schisms of the Cor- of the Infestation, but every time I get even a little bit of progress, I end up having to repel the monsters away… Honestly, here I thought the armor I had and the weapons with me would be decent enough to keep it simple for me…"

Brian sat up from the bed, feeling that he had been fully bandaged, and otherwise was healthy. He looked around the room, that was in conjunction to the main house he had built the first day; it was made of wood, since he had used the stone he mined to create winding staircases down to the bottom of the Corruption. But as he said before, the Eater of Souls show up every time he even gets near the area. He has yet to die, but because of a severe lack of healing potions, he had to keep coming back to his nurse, Lisa. He then glanced over to Lisa, which in turn, he instantly admired her perkiness and beauty that he had rarely seen in his previous life.

Just the nurse…. Just the nurse…

"Whatever it is you're doing, just walk it off; you'll be fine."

Brian stared at Lisa without emotion or thought, then sighed with resignation in his heart, Yep, definitely just the nurse…

At his sigh, Lisa frowned, creasing her eyebrows and staring with a bit of discontent in her blue eyes.

After a few moments with Brian's eyes closed, he stood up, and went to the other side of the room, where a mannequin was placed, not by Brian or Lisa, but by Andrew. On this mannequin, was the armor that Brian had crafted barely less than three days ago. When he had crafted it, it shone brilliantly, with yellow blazes and trails along the general armor, and it shone with a luminosity that could cause jealousy within the stars themselves.

But after the last few days, Brian had been smacked around by the Eaters, and even Devourers had risen out of the land beneath him to attack him. Lately, he had gotten accustomed to gripping to the staff of emerald he had crafted just prior to the silver armor, and when he was finally within the schism, the sound of metal armor clinking onto the hilt of a sword was not an uncommon noise.

As a result of these days that have followed the silver set's creation, there were deep gashes and scratch marks across most of the chest plate. The helmet itself covered Brian's face entirely, and was also covered in dried purple-ish blood from him spilling it out of the Eaters or Devourers. But despite the somewhat gruel picture laid before him, Brian could only smile, pondering about the extent of the experiences he had gone through thus far. To him, seeing this armor no longer polished and in pristine condition allowed him to feel a sense of reality to this world, as well as know that he's progressing.

Besides, it's not like he's going to be wearing that armor for the rest of his life.

Brian walked to the mannequin and put on his boots and breastplate, holding the helmet within his armpit when he turned around to Lisa and thanked her for her support, before heading out and into the main chamber.

As of now, after roughly 8-10 days, the "base of operations", as Andrew repeatedly called it, had grown to be a handful of inhabitant. Obviously, the inhabitants included Brian, Andrew, and the nurse, Lisa. The other that had come was just like the NPC he had remembered of back in the game, except them being an interesting mix of the merchant and traveling merchant, as he traveled to and from wherever Brian and company were to elsewhere to get his items to sell. Not that Brian cared where he went off to, as his items were useless to him until he could get the Arms Dealer to arrive, which required Brian searching for a Shadow Orb in the Corruption, and shatter it. Without the Arms Dealer, guns wouldn't be "available," and the progression of the "game" would slow to a near halt until he otherwise does.

Dejected from the reality of his fate if he doesn't find a Shadow Orb, he slouched his shoulders, causing the armor to creak against itself. Andrew saw this scene, and simply smiled bitterly upon this sight, but said nothing.

After a few moments like that, Brian shook his resignation off, and walked out of the base and towards the Corruption to the north.

Walking to and back from the Corruption has given Brian more time to think than he could handle to himself. He had started pondering on what he could if he continued to be stuck in this cycle forever. He knew almost as a fact that chests didn't exist in the current places he had explored, which only left the possible Dungeon somewhere out in the desert, as well as the Underworld, if he ever reached there. This posed a serious and grave problem to himself as no chests in the normal biomes would nearly extinguish any chance of a Magic Mirror surfacing for him to take, which would essentially allow him to teleport back home at ease, significantly increasing his ability to take more risks. But alas, he understood that for now, he would have to bide, and play cautiously.

Another thing he thought about was what if he died, accidentally or otherwise…

Before jumping into that train of thought, he realized that he had already reached the Corruption's border with the snow biome. With this, he sighed, shook off his thoughts, and gripped his staff while retaining the highest alert he could muster.

When he first came, he had been wearing the very same armor he is now, but dazzling and polished. He had carelessly assumed he could abolish any monsters he came into contact with. But as he wielded his heavy silver sword, he came to learn in a painful way that this would not be the case. Each fight was grueling and difficult, forcing him to have to take a breath before doing anything else, and then resuming forward in his progress down the schism, until another monster made its target clear.

Having already lost count of how many Eaters or Devourers he had slain, he scanned the area, only to see that there were very few things around; none of which were his monsters he was wary of.

Hm, perhaps this will be my lucky day then!

Smiling slyly underneath his armor, Brian jogged over to the schism he had gone to in his previous times, and began his descent. It was at this point, that Brian swapped from his Emerald Staff to resting a hand with readiness on the hilt of his silver sword. But going further down, he sensed nothing nearby, and could ascertain that this was the first time he had gone this far without a single fight. Perplexed, Brian slowed his pace until he got to the last bit of his staircase he made, looked at a it for a bit, then proceeded to build further down until he made it to the floor of the schism.

Seeing nothing around, Brian was almost taken aback until he reminded himself that it was pitch black where he was, and pulled out a torch, revealing a gargantuan cavern that stretched all the way around him until even the light faded, revealing no walls or of the likes. Despite the size of the cavern, Brian was aware of the chasms in this cavern that, if he were to fail to see them, could lead to a death more painful than the average fall, only because of the shock of it as well as the utter despair to experience. Due to those things, Brian almost didn't dare to walk away from where he was, but eventually, he took the first step in no particular direction, and proceeded forward.

A few minutes had passed before he finally heard the first low sickly purr since he had come to the Corruption. With this, Brian contemplated within seconds what weapon to use, and decided on the Emerald Staff. He whirled it out, and directed the gem towards the Eater of Soul, and focused his mana into the staff, and with a hum, a green energy crystal whizzed towards the Eater, hitting it, and piercing it through, allowing it only to shriek upon its death.

As the green light faded away, the cavern momentarily became dark until Brian took out a torch again and proceeded onward, feeling indifferent to what had just occurred. The sound of metallic footsteps rang for a long distance around him as he walked, until finally, he stopped at an unfamiliar sound.

Hearing this sound, Brian gripped his staff resting on his back, trying to identify the loud pop he had heard in the general direction he had been walking in. After a few moments, he slowly started to walk again, but this time, waiting for the sound to be made again; and after a few minutes, he did hear it again.

This time, it was much closer, and the pop was followed by something that sounded like there was something falling, as though someone dumped thousands of shards of glass onto the ground. Brian became perplexed, but also curious at this point, and sped up his pace. Eventually, he began to notice a faint purple aura emanating through the caverns, and as he kept walking, the aura got steadily stronger, until he could almost see with the light, as well as standing next to a floating purple orb that had nearly appeared out of nowhere for him.

… A Shadow Orb?!

Slightly dumbfounded, he wasn't prepared to see a Shadow Orb on this level of the Corruption, as they were usually in the chasms below. However, he wasn't willing to nitpick his good fortune, and cried out, "Such luck!"

Brian pulled off his staff so he could grab the hammer resting underneath it, and pulled it up and out for him to use, setting the staff back on his back. The wooden hammer resting in his hand was one of his first creations, and despite this, it still looked just as though he had made it yesterday. The handling of it was a bit dirty as the weight of the hammer gives the feeling of it wanting to swing even if Brian hasn't swung it yet.

In this case, however, it mattered little to him about the handling of the hammer. He frankly crafted it specifically for this moment, to shatter an Orb and gain progress. He lifted the hammer above his head, steadying his posture, making sure the hammer wouldn't swing behind him, and thus tipping him over in imbalance.

Such a troublesome hammer…

He readied himself now that it was above his head, and swung the hammer, creating a loud pop like he heard before, except this time, he saw and heard every bit of glass shatter from fragments into almost dust. Before him, the Orb popped almost like a bubble, revealing the weapon he had been doing this for, which was the musket. However, much to his surprise, he saw more than just the musket.

What had fallen to his feet was the musket, a ring, and two other weapons he had somewhat of a vague recollection of. The first of the two was a green-grey stick that had a spear like tip to it, but judging from the material, Brian could guess it was only a magic weapon, if even that. He shifted his gaze to the other weapon, which seemed like a spiked ball attached to a handle and looked as though it could be swung. Swimming through his memories, Brian could vaguely recall the spear-like weapon he had before him, which was the Vilethorn. However, he was still at a blank with the spiked ball weapon.

Before giving any more thought to it, he heard a multitude of screams echoing around him. At first it was faint, but it steadily grew to be like a huge tidal wave washing over him in wails and screams that made him feel as though he would go deaf.

"Guh!" Brian could barely take any more of this screaming, but even so, he did subtly take notice that the cavern begun shaking violently.

Is this really what I think it is…? Almost subdued by the screams, he barely managed to emit that one thought within his brain, and when he did, the screams faded out, almost like a candle blowing out from a puff of air. Realizing he had been suffocating, Brian gasped for air, and then regained himself.

He steadied himself, and took notice, once again, that the cavern was shaking, and he could hear a very distant roar. However, he had the gut instinct telling him that the roar would be coming closer and closer, and very soon, on top of him.

Crap… This is way too soon!

Brian was painfully aware of what was going on, and he knew that it was not a good idea to still be standing where he was, and so he ran off towards the winding staircase he created. The entire world around him was shaking now, and when he looked up through the schism to see the sky above, he was almost grateful entirely that it was day time, so much so that the light filtered down to where he was standing, at the base of the staircase. But this majestic view would have to wait, as the roar of an untamable had been steadily growing louder, closing in on Brian's position.

Almost skipping a heartbeat, he immediately bolted up the staircase, forcing his legs to run as fast as he could. He wasn't sure if he was imagining it or not, but it felt almost as if his staircase was slowly dissolving as he took each step, the tremors of the earth weakening the stone he had once put faith into. He dared not to look back however, focusing on getting out onto the surface. He didn't even have to think about the consequences of standing within the schism.

The roars now were reaching a volume that Brian was sure should've blown out his hearing. However, disregarding such a trivial matter, Brian was almost to the top of the staircase, starting to see the barren wasteland of purple spreading out before him. It was at this point that he heard his staircase beginning to collapse.

"Shit!" He cried out as he had only a few more steps to go.

He could hear the staircase below him crumbling down, and he felt the sturdiness of the steps he was on diminishing. Brian panted as he took the final five steps as too much of a risk. He jumped up to the ledge, and at that moment, the staircase he had been on had completely vanished from underneath him and was falling to the bottom of the schism.

The leap was just a little short, but even so, Brian grinded his teeth as he tried to somehow will himself to reach the ledge, reaching out with even just his fingers.

He missed. Feeling this truth wash over him gave him the feeling of fear. True fear.

Is this how I will die? The roars have now become unbearable, the earth shaking as though it would split all the way to the underworld. But it almost didn't matter to Brian, as he had started to fall from his jump. Closing his eyes, Brian was about to think about his final moments when something completely unexpected happened.

A hand reached out for Brian's extended one that tried to grab the ledge, successfully grappling it and suspending Brian from falling. He opened his eyes in pure disbelief, and looked up towards the person whom he owed for doing this. But he almost had his breath taken away all over again.

The person before him was wearing a pure gold set of armor, which shone brilliantly in the sun. Unlike his silver armor, however, the gold helmet did not cover the face of his savior. And in this case, all he could discern was the emerald green eyes she held with a fierce gaze in them. And how did he know it was a "she"? Her voice.

"So it was you who destroyed the third orb, for crying out loud… Why did you have to do that?!" Her voice wasn't shrill, but it was hard for Brian to get past the somewhat high pitched voice.

Nevertheless, he was still dumbstruck by the fact he was saved, but then the roar that sounded almost right below him snapped him out of it, "Enough about that, we have the Eater of Worlds right below us! Pull me up, we need to get away from the Corruption!"

The gold armored girl pulled up Brian, but then folded her arms and scolded him, "Why would we leave now? Since it's been summoned, we may as well try to defeat it. Hmph!"

At the last word, she looked away in an annoyed manner, which only served to make Brian perplexed.

Such a character exists…?

But before going any further, ground shook one last time with such a violent magnitude, that some of the trees felled simply because of it, to say nothing of the duo that has now been knocked onto the ground.

Brian knew it was probably too late to run away, and who knew if the rules of the game would apply to the behemoth they would soon face, such as de-spawning once you left the Corruption.

Then there is no choice…

Brian sighed, "Fine. I sure hope you have healing potions for yourself, because you're going to take the brunt of its attacks."

The girl looked back and stomped her foot, "Why is that?"

Brian smirked as he pulled out his staff, displaying it to the girl, "Because I am a Mage."

At first, the girl looked a little awe-struck, then laughed, "Yeah? Well…" She pulled out her weapon, which was a musket, "I'm a Ranger."

Widening his blue eyes behind the silver helmet, he was at a loss of words.

The girl nodded her head quickly, "Yep, that means we're both going to be trying not to take hits."

Brian cursed under his breath. But there wasn't any time left. The ground had stayed silent for just a moment, before the roars resonated through the schism without any inhibitors, the roars themselves causing almost as much of a tremor as the movements of this monster through the earth. The sickly appearance of this gigantic worm was enhanced by the multitudes of eyes that laid on its head and body, the pincers it had were essentially those on the Eater of Souls, but bigger, and nastier.

The Eater of Worlds has awoken.

~I am SO sorry for not uploading at ALL lately, I was trying to figure out how to continue the story, since I had like four or five different ways of introducing the girl. But nevertheless, I have no excuses for my sorry existence. I hope the excessive burst of chapters throughout today will help make at least some amends!~