I recruited both Fahd and Ovbere to help me improve the village defenses. Though Ovbere was reluctant to cooperate with a goblin, Bradley managed to convince him.
With Ovbere's explosives, I blasted open a deep, rectangular trench around the village. With Fahd's precision instruments, I built a great brick wall in the trench, eight feet thick at all points, filling in the gaps with dirt.
When I ran out of resources, I mined extensively in Alabaster. "Trying to dig up the world?" laughed Luke. Surprisingly, he didn't seem to mind when I told him yes, that was precisely what I was doing.
Alabaster was rich with ore and treasures. With Luke's permission, I began to dig an extensive strip-mine next to Luke's house. This might well leave some drastic mark on the environment, but there were few options.
At Fahd's workbench, I combined Bradley's rocket boots with my flurry boots, crafting a pair of spectre boots. With the rocket boot's flight capabilities, I was now far more mobile.
I extended the platinum wall beneath the village, again eight feet thick, insulating the village from below. This blocked off the east hill's tunnel, but that was a sacrifice I'd have to make for Corundia's safety.
With the dirt and stone I'd mined from the desert, I filled in the west entrance of the grass-cave. I filled in the gaps under Frederick's house as well, melding the floating turf into the grass-cave's roof. It now had just two exits: the stairs from Frederick's house, and the tower itself.
It took a day to dig into the grass-cave's floor, wondering if it was actually part of the same cave as the underground river; and after discovering it wasn't, it took me three more days to fill in the floor.
Most importantly, I filled in the west hill's tunnel, since I never used it now. I sealed over the cavern where I'd fought my first yellow slime, and packed every inch of the tunnel with dirt until the hill was solid. Never again would invaders use it to enter my village.
This project drastically transformed the landscape. The grass-cave had once been the village's entrance, a natural passage with curtains of vines. Now, it was my private den, offering a firm wall to my back. I moved my bed here.
I filled in the corridor behind the heavy door in my basement. It wasn't needed anymore: the vertical shaft to the mushroom farm was a superior entrance to the underground.
There were now only two underground exits out of the village: A small gate by the underground river, connecting to whatever remained of the west hill's tunnel; and the vertical shaft to the mushroom cave, intersecting with what remained of the east hill tunnel.
Houses recieved remodeling as well. Bradley's house recieved gray stucco roofing, while Philosir's and Jenna's houses were reinforced with planked walls and stone. Ovbere moved into a shelter in the grass-tunnel, while Bruno moved into the brick house.
Lastly, I tore down most of the extensions on top of the floating island. Once, I had envisioned building a floating city on its surface; but I had become too attached to the city below to ever abandon it. I left the sky mill and a few chests on the island, mostly containing feathers-including a large tail-feather from a harpy.
Reorganization! I remodeled the interior of my tower, as I wanted to move the sawmill into the workshop, but had to take out the chests to make room. At some point, the workshop ended on top of the patio.
The first floor was made from living wood. It had two grandfather clocks and Faye's original furniture, lit with star-lanterns. What used to be the front door was now the door to my grass-cave den, and the back door was now the front door. Parts of the original hill were still intact.
The second floor was made from stone and gray brick. It had four chests for building materials, plants and animals, potions, and tools. There was also an obsidian dresser, a glass chandelier, and two star-lanterns.
The third floor was made from a combination of wood and glass. It had four chests for weapons, metal ores and bars, furniture, and decorations. It also had an obsidian piano and several weapon racks.
The fourth-floor patio was rebuilt from platinum brick, gemspark, and glass. It now featured an anvil, a hellforge, a glass kiln, my workbench, and a sawmill. And as always, it remained open to the infinite sky.
"Increasing pessimism and impulsivity are early symptoms of Crimson fever," warned Jenna. "You absolutely must not forget to take your medication daily." Heeding her warning, I gathered handfuls of glowing mushrooms before I returned to the glass dome.
I built a lab on top of the dome-the Crystal Observatory, I named it. Located over the crimstone chasms, it became my main headquarters for my war against the Crimson. All crimstone, crimsand, and vertebrae samples were kept here for Tatiana to examine.
"Fascinating," muttered Tatiana, who was studying a clump of crimsand with a twig-woven magnifying glass when I arrived. "The microbes' behavior aren't merely cooperative... they're in perfect synchronization."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
She hesitated, perhaps trying to find words that I would understand. "They appear to be independent life-forms, but they appear to exchange signals and cooperate with such rapid speed that they might as well be a single life-form."
I constructed an elevator of sorts under the lab, pouring down high stacks of silt that reached from the ground to the top of the dome, touching the Observatory's underside.
With the silt-stacks to protect me, I built a massive glass tower beneath the Crystal Observatory, located in the dome's center. It was a glorious thing, with star-lanterns and thick rope extending from top to bottom, connecting the inside and outside worlds.
About halfway down the tower, I started a glass walkway to cut across to the dome. This served two purposes: First, it would allow easy access to the tower, the base of which served as my entrance to the Crimson. Second, it would eventually allow me to lower the dome's height considerably in the future.
Growing confident, I began attacking the Crimson's surface directly. With bombs and powder, I began to purify the crimsand desert-the part of the dome west of the tower-digging deep pits to reach every last bit of sand.
But while the desert was gradually cleansed, the grasslands and forests remained bloody. The weed-choked lakes were also worrisome; they were vast and murky, their lakebeds concealed.
Tatiana was waiting for me when I returned to the Observatory. "My current hypothesis is that the Crimson is some sort of hive-mind, controlled by a central entity-one most likely connected to the crimson hearts underground," she told me. "I'm still conducting tests, but so far, my hypothesis has been valid."
Both Crimson and Corruption swallowed their surroundings, transforming grass, stone, ice, and sand. The red evil or the purple evil, the man in shadow armor had once said; that was hardly a choice of any sort. "What's the difference between the Corruption and the Crimson?"
She nodded. "Corruption is a rampant force of nature-it's completely decentralized like Terraria. No single force really guides it, not even the demons who once created it. In contrast, the Crimson acts like a single organism. Each part is completely dependent on the others, a polysymbiotic hierarchy of some sort. And I suspect there's "
She handed me a small chunk of crimstone. "Feel it. Ebonstone is permeated by Corruption fibers; but this isn't just permeated. The very structure's been transformed. It's warm, living, breathing. It's as if..." The dryad hesitated. "It's as if the Crimson is literally the flesh and bone of a greater being, trying to metabolize this world."
I stared at the crimstone, one hand patting my pockets for my glowing mushrooms. "What can I do?" I whispered. How could I defeat such a being? Surely, it was impossible.
Sighing, she sat down. "I think it's best to take a break from this," she told me. "There's a seal on the Crimson, you know. Right now, it can't metabolize sand, stone, or ice. It can't even swallow more of the jungle; the nutrients are too rich. You need to spend some time not worrying about this.
A break? "But I just got back from a break," I muttered. "I can't leave the Crimson unattended for too long."
"Jenna told me you were developing Crimson fever," said the dryad sternly. "That platinum brick wall is a wall you might never need. Anxiety and fixation will only worsen your symptoms. You need to spend a good deal of time away from the Crimson, not thinking or worrying about it."
Bloody images were imprinted in my mind-images of the lakes, the hills, the village, the grass-cave, all consumed by the Crimson. "And do what?" I asked.
"Go back to the Dungeon, and try to break the old man's curse again," said Tatiana promptly, looking me in the eye. "You're stronger now, even if you don't realize it; you're better equipped and more experienced than last time. Go, now. I'll still be here when you return."