Journey to the Moon Lord

by Reddiviz

After the Cult of the Moon Lord built an impenetrable dungeon to work out their plans, Terraria grew desperate, but luckily, an individual who seemed to know too much volunteered to help, guiding the brand new Terrarians to eventually kill the Moon Lord.

4. Chapter 2 - Pre-evil bosses

Ryan's POV

After the guide's test, he told me and the other terrarians to book it for tonight and rest for tomorrow, rather nervously too, I wonder why.

So we went to our own houses, all of which were rather simple, with the exception of Ashley, she made her's very fancy.

I didn't have much to do there, I could sleep but I didn't feel tired at all, there wasn't anything else I could've done other than that though, so I decided to sleep anyway, it would make tomorrow arrive faster too right?

I didn't dream of anything that night, if anything it was like being half conscious, or like I had made my brain slower in some way, because time definitely felt like it moved faster for me when I slept, if you could consider it sleeping at all.

I left my house at sunrise, seems like I was the first person to get up, as there was no one else outside but me, I wonder what I'm going to do today.

Suddenly, Magnolia slowly came out of her house with a book in her hand, she saw that I was awake, and ran towards me with excitement.

"Ryan! Look look! I learned spells!" She said as she showed me her book.

"Spells? Wait, you stayed up all night learning spells?"

"Yep!"

"But the guide told us to rest for today!"

"Well... Rest is for those who are tired, and I wasn't tired, I'm still not!"

I sigh "Right, of course, what spells did you learn anyway?"

"I'm glad you asked! Let me show you the one I learned first."

Magnolia proceeded to do a pinching gesture, rubbing her thumb and index finger together, which created white sparks, she then 'flicked' her index finger with her thumb, which made her index light up in a white light, she then touched her bracelet with her lit up finger, which made her bracelet go invisible, her finger returning to normal.

"Ta-da!"

"W-What did you do?"

"Isn't it obvious? I turned my band of regeneration invisible."

"And how is that useful?"

"Uhh... It's... Um, it's useful for hiding what our accessories actually are I guess? It's mainly used for fashion, for that one useful thing you wear that doesn't look good with everything else."

"That sounds too specific to be useful."

"Look, it's what the book said, plus, with the amount of fighting we're gonna be doing, hiding our accessories is bound to be come in handy."

"Well, I guess you're right, on that note, does it work on armor?"

"Yes, but from what I tested and from the words of the book itself, it'll make your armor invisible, but also all layers of clothing inside the armor, making you naked."

"Let's not do that."

"Yeah, now, other than that, I'm learning slight telekinesis."

"Slight?"

"It's just telekinesis but weak, I can only carry small objects with it, and if the object weights too much it won't work."

"Can you make it more powerful?"

"I can't make this particular spell more powerful, but it seems I can learn a more powerful spell instead, but I don't know where to find that, gonna need to ask the guide for that one."

"I see."

After that, we waited, Melwyn and Ashley exited their houses, they didn't do anything important, the guide arrived shortly after.

"I see you all got up very early in the morning, did you sleep well?" The guide said.

The was only silence after that, I don't even know if I actually slept, even if I did, I wouldn't say I slept well.

"You didn't sleep at all did you?"

We shook our heads.

"Yeah I figured you wouldn't, it's good to know though."

The guide yawned.

"Welp, I have a few things for you guys to do, but first, I want you guys to have a way to manage time, come to the workshop."

We followed the guide to the workshop, the fire from the torches still haven't died out.

"Now, we are going to be making pocket watches, they are fairly complicated so bare with me."

The guide asked Magnolia for 3 bars of gold separated into 4 equal parts, he said that it'd be better if we made the watches while sitting in a chair with a high table for precise work, so we did that.

He told us to sit down and gave us a piece of the processed gold, and then explained very carefully how to make a watch, it was complicated and took us a long while, but we managed to pull through and make one pocket watch for each one of us.

"Why make it out of gold?" I asked while contemplating my newly made watch.

"Believe it or not, it's actually the best material for watches, makes more precise timing possible, now give me the watches, I need to synchronize them." The guide said as we handed him our watches.

"Are these actually accurate?" Ashley asked.

"To the actual time? Probably not, it may be off by a few minutes, maybe more, but all that matters is that they show the same thing for you four, that way you can get back here at the same time." He said as he finished synchronizing, handing us our respective watches.

"Now I will assign you your missions, first off, Ashley, you will go explore the underground of the tundra, but be careful when you have to walk through thin ice, it will easily break with too much force, to go there just go to the opposite of where Melwyn went yesterday, you remember which way he went right?"

Ashley nodded and headed out of the workshop.

"Now, Melwyn, yours will be a bit more complicated, first, Magnolia, you still have that gravitation potion right?"

Magnolia nods and hands him a spade shaped bottle with purple liquid inside.

"This is a gravitation potion, it allows you to flip your own gravity, essentially enabling you to fly, to negate any fall damage just flip your gravity right before falling on something, then flip it again to fall back to where you wanted, understood?"

Melwyn nodded.

"Good, you will be searching for floating Islands, basically a big solid cloud with a small island on top of them, you can distinguish them from normal clouds due to them not moving with the wind, staying in place, also, VERY important reminder is that the gravitation potion only lasts 3 minutes, you'll have to do everything quick alright? Only drink the potion after you're sure you found a floating island."

Melwyn nodded and grabbed the potion with him before heading out of the workshop.

"Now, Ryan, Magnolia, you will be working together, you two will head to the underground desert to find materials and other loot, but you'll need to do it very carefully, not only are the creatures there powerful, but there is a thing there that could kill you in an instant: rolling cacti, if these things get hit by something, it'll start rolling in a random direction, doing massive damage to anything in it's path, and if it gets destroyed it will shoot spikes into all directions, doing even more damage, you'll have to be extremely careful, but I promise, the loot there is worth it."

We nodded, but the guide stopped us from leaving.

"Now now, before you go I still believe there are some things you need to do, mostly just make a golden bow for Ryan, the bars we have left should be enough."

We quickly made a bow made of gold, the guide said it's more powerful, so I trust it is.

"Do you know how to make arrows? You just need stone and wood, it's pretty simple."

I thought about it for a second, before making a bunch of wooden sticks and placing stone arrowheads on top of every single one of them.

"Good, now, remember the ice torches? You can use their fire to light up the arrows, which will make a slightly stronger version of fire arrows, it also wont get extinguished by water."

I take out one of my ice torches and light up the arrows, then I put said arrows in my inventory.

"Good, you two can go now, good luck."

We nod and leave the workshop, heading towards the desert.

Melwyn's POV

I've been walking around for about 12 minutes looking straight up now.

I feel like an idiot.

Since I've been looking up, I haven't payed attention to where I am walking, I've tripped around 14 times now, in a span of 12 minutes.

How rare are these islands anyway? I know it has only been 12 minutes, but it really feels like I've been searching for something that doesn't exist.

After searching for an island for a while, I finally find a floating island.

And I'm sure of it, it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the other clouds because it isn't moving at all, it looks like it's further from the other clouds as well.

I take out the gravitation potion and pop out the glass stopper, then I chug the entire potion.

After drinking the potion, I start feeling weird, I don't know what the potion actually did but it changed me in some way.

The guide said this lasts 3 minutes, I gotta work fast.

I flip my gravity as if it's something I could always do, my body flips upside down and I start falling towards the sky.

I'm rapidly approaching the bottom of the island, before hitting it, I flip my gravity again, my body flips again and I quickly lose my velocity, before I even start falling back to the ground, I flip gravity again, safely landing on the bottom of the island, which seems to be made of some sort of solid cloud.

It feels really soft, but I should work quickly, I don't have time to appreciate the cloud or anything.

I walk to the edge of the island, I carefully look into the top of the island, there's a blue and yellow building in there, must be why the guide told me to go here.

I jump out of the island, flip my gravity to normal, then use my sandstorm in a bottle to propel myself to the island.

I land, bolt to the door and quickly enter the house.

There's nothing much inside it, just a table with 2 chairs and chest.

The chest must be what the guide wanted.

I quickly run to the chest and open it, inside there's a handful of items, a bunch of the solid cloud that the island seems to be made of, a painting of a meteor, what appeared to be a miniature mill made of the same material from the furniture and chest, and lastly, a pink sword with a glowing star in the guard of it's hilt.

This sword... I feel the same weird connection to it as the one I felt with the copper shortsword.

I don't know what it does, but I'll be keeping it.

I should hurry, I grab all the items along with the chest, I then run out of the building.

It seems time isn't the only problem I have to worry about either.

There were creatures waiting outside, they were a strange combination of a woman and a bird, with red and blue feathers.

These creatures proceeded to launch sharp feathers at me at a high velocity.

I managed to dodge the feathers, which embedded themselves in the wall behind me.

Is this some sort of curse? When I loot some magical artifacts will some birds get angry at me and start to want to kill me or something?

I really hope not, but it already happened twice so far, it's two for two.

But this isn't my main problem, I should worry about how much time I have left.

Without hesitation, I quickly jump out of the floating island.

I'm now falling to the ground, my speed is accelerating, there's no more going back.

At just the right moment, I flip my gravity, my velocity drops rapidly, I stop mere inches away from the ground.

I flip my gravity again, and land on the ground safely, that was stressful.

I think I'm safe, I can take a better look at the loot now.

First is the solid cloud, it's soft, a lot softer than the silk we made earlier, maybe I should make a new bed out of this?

Second is the painting, it's a detailed painting of a falling meteor, there's a plate in the frame that appears to have the name of the painting.

It says 'Blessing from the heavens'

I don't think a meteor would be a blessing.

Anyway, the third one is this strange mill thing, I don't know how this thing works, the guide might though, I'll ask him later.

Lastly, the sword, the blade looks sharp, but thicker than usual, it has this weird bump in the middle of it too.

I decide to test it, I swing the sword once, unexpectedly, a pink star shaped projectile comes crashing down and lands to where I was aiming.

This... This was worth the trouble.

Shortly after swinging, the sword beeped, weird, I'm going to try swinging again.

I swing the sword, the star appears again, and lands exactly where I was aiming.

I look at the sword, the star in the guard stopped glowing, but shortly after, it beeped again, and the star lit up once more.

So I got that mystery solved, but now I need to test its power, luckily, there are plenty of slimes around.

I aim at a green one in the horizon and swing my sword, a star falls on it and it splats into a gooey mess.

Damn, even the cactus sword required a few swings, this thing is good.

I'll go back to the guide and show him what I got.

After a bit of backtracking, I arrive at the place I call home, I head inside the workshop and see the guide relaxing in his armchair.

The guide notices my arrival and greets me "Ah, Melwyn, you're back! Did you find a floating island?"

"Yes, I did, there was a building up there, I looted a chest in there, and also grabbed the chest itself." I say as I walk to 'chest area', placing the blue chest there.

"Wonderful, what loot did you find?"

"Well, first is a bunch this solid cloud." I hand him some of the cloud, he starts inspecting it.

"Cloud chunks... I don't believe these are very useful, they're very very soft, could be good for, say, cushioning someone's fall, but apart from that, not very useful, good for beds I suppose."

"Right, next is a paiting." I show him the meteor painting.

"Oh my, a painting, well, nothing special, you can put it in your house if you want."

"Alright, next, is this... Mill, or at least I think it's a mill, do you know how it works?" I show him the strange mill.

"A sky mill, interesting, I do know how it works, but even then, there's not much you can do with it, since all it does is process fallen stars into sunplates, which is just a fancy stone for building and furniture making."

"Fallen stars?"

"Ah, right, we didn't get to see any last night did we? Don't worry, you'll get to stay up tonight to see them."

I'm more confused now, but I suppose I'll just go with it "Alright, last one is this pink star sword." I show him my new sword.

"The star fury, exactly what I hoped for."

"You knew this was gonna be up there?"

"Yes, and it's also why I sent you there specifically, this powerful sword will suit you perfectly."

"I see, but I have a question, why is it that I feel a strange connection to this sword? I have a feeling it's important, somehow, I feel the same with the copper shortsword."

"Huh, that's weird, maybe it's an ability?"

"You don't know?"

"No, the goddess didn't tell me anything about this, doubt she even knows it herself."

"Huh, I guess I'll just see where it goes, this is all."

"Wait, Melwyn, I have another thing for you to do."

"Oh, what is it?"

"It's a rather tame chore compared to what you just did, I'd like for you to build an 'arena'."

"An arena?"

"It's simpler than it sounds, basically, you will make an area where you can move freely without obstacles, but I dont mean just empty space."

"I see, where should I build this?"

"Behind the workshop would be best, also, remember how your placement ability can ignore gravity? I was thinking you make a big platform above the ground so you can always go up when you need it."

"That's a good idea, how far from the ground should I make it?"

"Hmm, I think 60 feet would be good."

"Uh, guide, I don't think I can jump that high, even with my bottle."

"Well, what if you used a hook?"

"A hook?"

"Yes, a grappling hook, they're very useful, here, let me show you how to make one."

The guide led me to the anvil, and handed me some iron, he instructed me on how to make a hook, he then instructed me on how to make chains to connect with the hook I made.

By end of it, I had made a grappling hook with a reach of about 37 feet, if I used the sandstorm in a bottle, I could reach the full 60 feet, not sure about the other Terrarians though.

"Now, go make the arena, it's very important." The guide said.

I leave the workshop and head to the designated area, flattening the ground first seems like a good Idea, so I begin doing that.

After about 30 minutes, I finish flattening the area, now would be the time for setting up the platforms, but as I build some rough stairs to reach up the 60 feet, I realize I don't really know how to make this platform.

So I go ask the guide about it.

I enter the workshop, again, he had resumed relaxing in his armchair.

"Guide."

"Huh? Oh, Melwyn, how's the arena coming along?"

"I've flattened the ground, but now I'm supposed to make the platform, I don't know how to make the platform."

"Ah, maybe I should've told you what I was thinking, let me explain in detail, make a square grid made of platforms, each square being 18 by 18 feet in length, with enough width to comfortably run without fear of falling, this grid should be as big as the arena itself, understood?"

"Yes, seems good."

I run back to the arena, and finish building the stairs to reach 60 feet, at the top, I make the first square in the grid, the guide didn't specify the thickness of the platform, but realistically it should be enough to not break while we run on it, so 1 feet of thickness should be enough.

I also confirmed that I could reach it, meaning I don't need to use the stairs anymore, so I destroyed those.

In about 3 hours, the platform was done, it took a lot longer to make than the house I made, since it's a lot bigger.

I also kept running out of wood, had to stop building to cut trees at least 3 separate times.

But at least I finished it, time to tell the guide.

I entered the workshop and saw the guide in his armchair, he's sleeping.

"Guide, wake up, I finished the arena."

The guide woke up abruptly "Wh- huh? Oh, good, you took so long I fell asleep."

"Took about 3 hours, the arena is pretty big compared to everything else I made."

"I see, did any of the other terrarians come back?"

"No."

"Alright, I don't have anything else for you to do, you can go do whatever you want now."

I nod and head out of the workshop, but when I open the workshop door, I see Ashley on the other side, who was about open the door.

"Oh, Hey Melwyn! I'm back."

I sigh "Forget what I said guide, Ashley's here."

Earlier near the tundra...

Ashley's POV

I have found the tundra! My bird easily found it while scouting for me, I was actually heading straight towards it, but I was doubting it since I didn't feel any colder while walking towards it.

I walk towards the 'tundra border' the difference between what is grass and what is snow is weirdly clear, there's no in between.

"Is this really it?" I ask to my bird.

Chirping* (I'm sure of it!)

"Alright."

I step into the snow, I feel the temperature immediately drop, I start shivering.

"W-Why did it get so cold so suddenly? Shouldn't I have felt this earlier?"

Chirping* (Well, this tundra actually isn't natural)

"Huh? How so?" I say while I look for a cave somewhere.

Chirping* (I believe it was made with magic, by the goddess herself)

"Why?"

Chirping* (She wanted to have cold creatures in the most dangerous part of her lands, I believe it's the same with the desert)

"Heh, you know a lot for a bird, you're like the guide."

Chirping* (Thank you, my species of bird was the most intelligent of them all, just behind ravens)

"You still seem to know too much for a bird."

Chirping* (I have 'lived' for thousands of years, I had a lot of time to learn things, and was also unrestricted by the limitations of my body, seeing as I was dead, by the way, there's a cave to your right)

I look right and see a cave in a mountain, I enter it and take out a torch (after I thank my bird of course).

"What about the guide? Maybe he's immortal and lived for a long time?"

Chirping* (I... do not know, there are a lot of ways to aquire knowledge, but that individual is quite the mystery to me, I cannot figure out his motives)

"But he told us himself, he proposed the goddess to create me and the others so we can abolish the dungeon cult thing."

Chirping* (I'm not so sure, he's quite suspicious to me, but he hasn't done anything wrong so far, also, I could not believe the goddess directly created you! I feel so honored to be working with you!)

"Oh come on! It's not such a big deal is it?" I say while blushing.

Excited chirping* (It is! The first beings of a species are celebrities back at the realm of the dead! You will be revered by your descendents! Wait, you will have descendents, right?)

"Uhh, I'm not sure."

Curious chirping* (You reproduce like normal humans right? Or is it different? Do you have a special ability for that?)

"L-Let's change topics alright?"

Suddenly, we come across a beat-up shack underground.

"Huh, so they weren't lying when they said they found underground shacks."

Chirping* (There's usually good loot inside these, take a look)

I went inside the shack, there was just furniture (and a piano, which was sadly frozen solid) and nothing else.

Confused chirping* (Huh? No chest? Really?)

"Look, there's some kind of marking on the ground." I point towards the rectangular marking of ice on the ground.

Chirping* (Hmm, perhaps that 'Ryan' looted this place already, he did come home with an frozen chest after all, this marking must be where that chest was)

"Seems so, let's move foward."

After wandering in the cave for a bit, we find a lake, there's a relatively thin layer of ice in its surface.

Alerted chirping* (Careful, master! That is thin ice, while it can withstand a good amount of weight, any meaningful amount of force will make it shatter! You should walk carefully)

"Alright I get it! Also, you can just call me Ashley you know."

Chirping* (Of course Ms. Ashley)

I sighed and walked through the lake, carefully of course, if the guide didn't stress it enough my bird surely did.

Immediately after the lake, I had found a frozen chest right in front of me, in the middle of nowhere.

"Oh."

Excited chirping* (A frozen chest! How lucky!)

"It's kinda suspicious, do you think it's a trap?"

Chirping* (It's pretty hard to rig a chest in an ice biome with traps, since they freeze shut, doesn't hurt to check)

I look around it.

"Looks good to me."

Chirping* (Then you can open it)

"Alright."

I try opening it, but it's frozen shut, of course it would be.

Using my pickaxe, I pry it open, inside it there's a lot of different items, a lotta rope, 13 silver bars, 5 healing potions (I recognized it from when Magnolia showed me hers), 1 vial with blue liquid, a pouch full of silver coins, and most of all, a bottle similar to Melwyn's 'sandstorm in a bottle', except this one seemed to have a blizzard inside it instead.

"Is this a 'blizzard in a bottle'?"

Chirping* (It is, if you tie it to yourself you can double jump like that big man 'Melwyn' does)

"Oh! How do I put it on?"

With some help from my bird, I tie the bottle onto myself, I didn't have a belt, so I tightly tied some rope around my hips.

"Wait, how did he activate it again? Was it-" I get cut off when I tap onto the bottom of the bottle, snow immediately spews out of it, sending me high into the air.

I hit my head on the cave ceiling and land on my back.

"Ow, my head." I slowly get up.

Concerned chirping* (A-Are you alright Ms. Ashley?)

"I'm fine, just figured out how this thing works, let's move foward."

I collect and the chest and it's contents and continue exploring the cave.

It doesn't take long for me to find something, the cave seemed to end in a hole of sorts.

"The cave doesn't end here, there's some sort of hole instead, but I can't see the bottom."

Chirping* (Throw a torch there, see how deep it is)

I take out another torch and throw it in, it hits the bottom, I can now see the bottom, it's not absurdly deep, but it's not like I just jump down there.

Chirping* (Perhaps you can use rope to get down there?)

"Good idea."

I place down some rope, emphasis on 'place', my placement ability works on rope too, I don't really need to tie it somewhere, I just need to have it be 'placed' somewhere.

After I finish placing the rope, I climb down into the hole, it's a lot bigger here, and most of all, there's a minecart track right in the middle of it that goes further into a tunnel, and lucky me, there's a minecart right next to me!

Of course, it doesn't look to be in the best conditions, but it seems functional!

I put it on the track, but then I realize something.

"Uh, how do I make it go foward?"

Chirping* (I believe these types of carts have a kind of lever inside of them that power the cart if continuously pushed)

"Like a... Uh, a handcar?"

Chirping* (Yes, I believe so)

I look inside the cart, and there is a sort of lever in it, I enter it and begin pushing the lever, there also seems to be some sort of handbrake in case I need to stop.

Chirping* (Now, we still need to stay vigilant, there may be danger in the tracks and we might need to stop at any moment!)

"Gotcha."

The cart starts picking up speed, it's faster than my running speed but still not too impressive, it's rusty after all.

Sudden loud chirping* (STOP NOW MISS ASHLEY!)

"AHH!"

I quickly pull the handbrake, the cart quickly slows down.

"WHAT IS IT?!" I jump out of the cart holding my whip.

Chirping* (Hold on! It's not serious, we nearly missed a shack! Along with a life crystal!)

"Oh wait, really?"

Chirping* (Yes, follow me!)

My bird friend flies to where I presume the shack is, and I follow him.

Chirping* (Oh! I saw wrong, there wasn't a life crystal here, there were two!)

My bird points to the broken down cabin, with two life crystal on top of it.

"Oh my! Does this mean we're lucky?"

Chirping* (Indubitably!)

"Let's get to it then!" I jump on the roof of the cabin and collect the life crystals.

"Should I use them?"

Exposition chirping* (I believe it is best to decide that back home, that bulky man, 'Melwyn', seems to be on the path to be a warrior, which means he will focus on close combat, and will also be the main target from foes)

"So I guess we should give most of these to him huh? Must be why the guide told Maggie to give it to Melwyn."

Chirping* (Yes, though we should balance how many life crystals everyone gets, if only one person gets everything, everyone else will be too fragile to do anything)

"I guess so, anyway! Shack time!" I say as I make a hole on top of the shack and jump into it.

Once inside, I look around, near instantly, I find the frozen chest.

I bolt towards it in excitement and pry it open, inside, there were 50 glowing arrows that felt oddly light, 8 bars of gold, 4 bottles that seemed to be healing potions, except that they were rounder and had a gold ring around it, the liquid in these also appeared to be... Lightly glowing? Anyway, there was also a sorta heart shaped potion with golden-yellow liquid inside, aswell as 20 torches, and 2 gold coins.

As for the more 'special' loot, I found one of those ice mirrors! I should be able to return home without having to walk my way back, which is good!

And finally, I found cyan boots with an icy wing decorated on the back of them.

Excited chirping* (Flurry boots! You've struck platinum Ms. Ashley!)

"Huh? You mean these boots? What do they do?"

Chirping* (Flurry boots, a type of super-sprinting footwear, it allows you to run incredibly fast, you should try them!)

"Alright then."

I take out my sneakers and put them in my inventory, then I put on the boots, didn't feel any different, though it looked pretty.

I collect the chest and all its loot and leave the cabin to test my new boots.

"Alright, do I just..."

I run towards where I came from, and begin picking up a lot of speed very quickly.

"Woah! I'm so fast, this is... SO FUN!" I put my arms out and close my eyes to feel the 'wind'.

Chirping* (Your running speed has vastly increased! I'm barely keeping up with you- ASHLEY LOOK OUT A FLINX!)

"Huh?" I open my eyes to see the flinx he's talking about, it's a ball of white fur with a half covered almost human face, it's jumping at me and approaching my face at a rapid rate, wait no, I'm approaching it at-

The flinx hits my head with it's tiny feet, I get knocked over and fall to my back, I slide a few feet backwards.

Aggressive chirping* (You damn flinx! How dare you hurt my master!)

I see my bird lunge itself at the flinx, hurting it and knocking the flinx back a fair amount.

I slowly get up and pull out my whip, I shake my head and run towards the flinx ready to strike.

"Take this!" I strike with my whip, the flinx gets knocked back by the hit, I continue to strike at it, every hit cutting deeper into it, until it finally drops dead.

"Phew, where did that thing even come from?"

Chirping* (Nowhere, actually)

"Wait, for real?"

Exposition chirping* (Sort of, how they come to existence is a bit of a mystery, but it seems like they spawn out of seemingly nowhere as long as it is deep underground in the snow biome, it is speculated that they're constantly reincarnated after they die, this is supported by the fact that no one has ever seen one in the afterlife, and also by the fact that they have no genitals)

"Huh, interesting, does this mean there is technically an infinite amount of flinx?"

Chirping* (More so never-ending)

"Same difference."

I check the flinx's body to see if it has anything useful for me, its fur looked really soft, and touching it... It was EVEN SOFTER.

"IT'S SO FLUFFY! Can I make a coat out of this? It would be so good against the cold!"

Chirping* (Erm, I believe you can, yes, but it would take quite a large amount of flinx fur, that one is not enough)

"Hmm, you said these kinda appear out of nowhere, so if I keep looking around will I find more of these?"

Chirping* (Theoretically, yes)

"So let's take look around~"

I run towards where I left the minecart, reaching full speed in no time and quickly getting to the minecart.

Chirping* (Ms. Ashley, please, when you run off like that, at least let me sit in the nest so I don't have to follow you by flying!)

"Oops, sorry, anyway, get in the cart! We're flinx hunting!"

My bird flies to his nest in my head, and I jump into the minecart and start cranking the lever.

I start moving at fast speeds, this time I pay attention to what's in front of me.

As we travel the rails, we come across many enemies I have never seen before, like a skeleton in viking clothing, a (very hostile) glowing bat made of ice, and almost frozen slimes with icicle on their backs.

None of them were that troubling to me, what was troubling was the end of the track, while it ended in a bumper, I noticed it too late and couldn't stop the cart in time, I flew face first into the wall in front of me, along with my bird.

"Owww."

As I de-sticked myself from the wall, I noticed it was made of wood, it's another cabin!

"Wait, bird! Look! A cabin!"

Chirping* (How lucky, we must loot it!)

I check inside, and quickly find the frozen chest, I open and check the items in it.

Inside, I found a stick of dynamite, more of those weird arrows, 10 bars of gold, 3 more of those fancy looking healing potions, a green square shaped potion, a slightly more yellow green spiky potion, and 2 gold coins.

There was also a pair of ice skates, which I was incredibly excited about.

"Oh my gosh! Ice skates, I can skate around here now, let me... Wait... I'll have to take off my flurry boots to use the ice skates!"

Chirping* (Actually, I believe not, these ice skates are magical, the blade on the bottom only appears when you step on an icy surface, and if you put it over your flurry boots, the boot part of the skates will disappear and the blades will remain until you take them off, working just like if you only put the ice skates)

"So I don't have to only choose one? How nice!"

I put the ice skates over my boots, the boot part of the skates disappeared and the blades remained.

For a few seconds at least, the blade disappeared too.

"Where did it go?"

Chirping* (I just told you, the blade only appears when you step on an icy surface)

"So what if I wanted to take it off?"

Chirping* (If you try to take out the flurry boots, you will end up taking out the ice skates intead, that's how you take them off)

"Oh, got it, I think."

I exit the cabin to continue my search for flinxs, immediately after my feet touch the ice, the ice skates activate and I almost fall from surprise.

"W-woah!" I say as I try balancing myself.

Chirping* (Don't worry, you should get the hand of it soon, ice skating is relatively easy)

"O-Ok! Let's try..." I try 'gliding' across the ice, and after a short time I get the hang of it.

Chirping* (Wow Ms. Ashley, you picked up that fast, I thought this would take longer! Now you can reach top speed way faster while on ice!)

"I uh, thanks? I didn't expect this either, now all I need to do is find a flinx."

Luckily for me I don't have to wait long, as there was a flinx approaching us, probably curious from the noise from when I crashed.

"Alright bird, get ready!"

My bird bird flies in front of the flinx, and I quickly skate right behind him, whip in hand and ready to strike!

My bird starts attacking the flinx, and I follow suit, swinging my whip at it, creating a 'crack!' noise at every hit.

The flinx succumbs to our assault shortly after, I make sure to collect its fur.

"Is this enough?"

Chirping* (seems you managed to scavenge more fur from its corpse compared to the last, but still, you need a lot more if you wanna make a coat)

"Right, guess I'll just keep looking."

I continue to explore the ice caves for a bit, without using the minecart of course, I wanted to use my ice skates for a bit, and also I don't wanna crash again.

I eventually gather enough flinx fur for a full-body coat, with some extra fur just in case.

After that, I decide to test the ice mirror I got, since I needed to go home.

I take out the mirror and look into my reflection, nothing happens and I look pretty normal in my reflection, except... the background in the mirror isn't the ice caves... It's my house! I gaze further into the mirror, and suddenly I realize I am no longer in the ice cave, the mirror has teleported me into my house without me noticing, that's so cool!

Chirping* (Ah, I'm glad the mirror teleported me along with you, I was worried I would be left behind, no one told me what would happen if a summoner used it, and I never thought about it until you found it)

"Oh! Bird, you're here! I didn't think about that either... not even when I used it..."

Chirping* (Well, that's in the past now, let's move foward, you need to report everything to the guide right?)

"Oh right! I'll get to it."

I leave my house and locate the workshop, the mirror really did teleport me here, I kinda felt like it didn't.

I walk to the workshop doors and attempt to open it, but before I can even touch the handle, the door opens, Melwyn's on the other side.

"Oh, Hey Melwyn! I'm back."

Melwyn sighs "Forget what I said guide, Ashley's here."

"Oh great! Ashley, come over here, I want to know what you got, and don't go just yet Melwyn, now that she's here, we'll have stuff to do."

I approach the guide, Melwyn follows suit.

"Okay! I found 3 frozen chests and 2 life crystals in the ice caves."

"Great! Give all the life crystals to melwyn." The guide says.

"Are you sure I should keep using all these life crystals?" Melwyn says.

"Oh trust me, you'll need them."

"Alright." Melwyn says, I hand him the life crystals, he smashes both with his hands, the life crystals shatter and turn into light again, entering his body.

"How much health do you have now?" I ask him.

"...160." He answers.

"Good, we'll be distributing more crystals to everyone else after Melwyn reaches 200, it's important that he can handle strong hits, now, Ashley, show me what you got in those chests."

"Oh! Right, let's see... in chest number 1 I found rope, 13 bars of silver, 5 healing potions, this blue potion which is..."

"A gills potion, it allows you to breathe underwater, doesn't actually give you gills."

"Right! I also found a bunch of silver coins and... Oh! And best of all! I found a... Uh... Where is it?" I frantically look through my inventory, but my blizzard in a bottle is nowhere to be seen.

The guide chuckles "You might already be wearing it."

I look down to my waist "Oh! Gosh, I forgot, well, I got a blizzard in a bottle! Just like Melwyn!"

"Oh, I didn't notice it." Melwyn says.

"Yes, very useful, not as good as the sandstorm one, but it's right behind it, aside from... Well let's not talk about that."

"Oh, well in chest 2 I found, uh, these weird glowing arrows, what are these?"

"Jester's arrows, these arrows can pierce anything and are not affected by gravity, though they disappear after 2 seconds after being shot."

"Wow, these sound really good!"

"Yes, however they are very hard to aquire, we should save them up for a... certain creature... now Ashley what else did you find in that chest?"

"I also found 8 bars of gold, and 5 healing potions, erm, these are healing potions right?"

"Oh, actual healing potions."

"Actual? Wait, were these ones not healing potions?" I show him the potion without the gold ring.

"Actually, they are healing potions, just lesser ones, lesser healing potions, not the real deal."

"So these are just healing potions?"

"By name, yes, but they are 2 times as effective as lesser healing potions."

"Got it, what about this potion with golden liquid?"

"Jackpot, a spelunker potion, it allows you to see anything you subconsciously find valuable through walls, they'll also glow in a yellow tint."

"That sounds so powerful! I can drink this right now and see all the valuable treasure there is?"

"Easy there, unfortunately you can't, the effect has a limited range to it, it's more valuable underground, hence the name."

"Oh, alright, I also found 20 torches there, 2 gold coins and... Oh! The next one is super cool! It's... Um, where did I leave it?"

"Is the next one your boots?" The guide says.

"Huh? Oh, it is, can't believe I did the same mistake again... Anyway! These flurry boots allow me to run super fast!"

"I am aware, they are very useful, especially for adventurers, and even more for a Terrarian, since you cannot get tired."

"Thanks! I guess, well now for chest 3! I found a- well, a stick of dynamite."

"Oh my, that's quite the thing to have, quite powerful, but we have no use for it right now, store it in the chests for later."

"Ok, next is more jester's arrows, 10 bars of gold, 3 'actual' healing potions, this green potion-"

"Which is a night owl potion, it enhances your vision, allowing you to see light better."

"Oh, a bit underwhelming but alright, next is this spiky potion-"

"A thorns potion, makes anyone who attacks you take the same damage they dealt to you, but only if they made contact, I went over this already with Magnolia."

"Ok, I also found 2 gold coins there, and best of all, the ice skates! Which I am wearing right now!"

...

"You're wearing the flurry boots." Melwyn says.

"Wait, no! I am wearing the ice skates, look!" I sit down and try to take out my flurry boots, the ice skates come out instead.

"See? I told you I was wearing ice skates."

"Ah yes, ice skates, useful for when you're in an icy place, but not for anything else."

I put the ice skates back on "Well, it's not bad to have them, right?"

"Yeah, anyway, was that all?"

"Actually, no, I got flinx fur there!" I take out a patch of flinx "it's so fluffy! I'm gonna make a coat with it!"

"That's actually a really good idea, due to their 'appearing-out-of-nowhere' nature, a coat out of their fur can provide a boost to summons, and may also make you able to summon more minions!"

"Wait, for real?! I can have a comfy coat AND two birds!?"

"Uh, yes, though wouldn't you want a better summon-"

"NO! I don't wanna give up my bird!" I hold my bird friend in protectiveness.

Chirping* (But Ms. Ashley, he's right, I'm afraid I'm not the best summon available out there, I am just a finch after all)

"No! You're the most precious thing on this earth! I'm not leaving you!"

Chirping* (Come on Ms. Ashley, you're overestimating me by a lot, you need more powerful summons)

"I'm not gonna just abandon you when I get access to something better! That's not fair for you!" I say, getting emotional.

Chirping* (Ms. Ashley, while I wish I could stay longer with you, you have to understand you'll need to get stronger, you're fated to do great things, and keeping me around will only slow you down)

"But then you're going to the afterlife, I can't just rob you of your life!" My eyes start getting teary.

Chirping* (Don't worry Ms. Ashley, the afterlife is not unpleasant, and I'm afraid I overstayed my welcome, besides, I'll have quite the story to tell to my friends back there, don't you think?)

"B-But I still want to see you! What if we never see eachother again?!" I start crying.

Chirping* (Ashley, it's not abandoning, you deserve better than just me, and if I stay with you, you'll be left underpowered, besides, I'm sure that if you focus hard enough with the staff, you can bring me back specifically)

"But- But- I..." I pause for a second.

...

"Fine, but how do I... take you back to the afterlife?"

"You can just do the same thing you did when you summoned him, except with the thought of making him dissapear this time." The guide intercepted.

I looked at my bird with a sad face, I sat down in my knees and took out the finch staff with my right hand and held him with my left.

I closed my eyes, and focused, on the exact same thing I had focused on when I summoned him, but with the thought of making him disappear.

...

But I couldn't, I simply couldn't, I didn't have it in me to 'kill' my bird friend, my right hand started shaking.

Calm chirping* (Ashley, focus)

I took a deep breath, and stopped shaking, I once again focused.

My bird started to feel lighter, I opened one eye slightly, I could see my bird becoming more and more translucent, before finally disappearing, there was nothing in my hand anymore.

I remained there, head down, eyes closed, silent.

...

Suddenly, the guide spoke, breaking the silence "Hmph, now I'm sure of it, you'll be the strongest summoner there is."

"Huh?" I looked at the guide.

"Never before have I ever heard of someone crying over a summon, normally beast tamers tame living beasts, those who use summons do so because they dislike taking care of one, as such, summons are notoriously treated badly."

"So... What does that mean for me?"

"Summons have untapped potential, but with the way you see them, you'll surely go above and beyond in meeting that potential." The guide reaches out a hand to me and helps me get back up on my feet.

I adjust my hair as I get back up, doing so I realize the birdnest is still in my head, I take it out, and looked at it, remembering the conversations I had with my bird.

"I guess I don't need this anymore... but I'll keep it, to remind myself of my bird." I put the birdnest in my inventory.

"Now, guide." I take a deep breath and regain my composure "How do I make this coat?"

The guide smiles "Very well then, follow me to the loom."

He walks to and crouches near the loom, then signals me to sit next to it.

"Now, I suppose you only really want the inside of the coat to be flinx fur, the outside can just be whatever, so let's just use silk."

I make some silk at the loom, enough for a coat.

"Now make the base coat."

I 'sew' a coat together, it's very easy when using the placement ability.

"Now, put flinx fur at the insides, without missing any spots."

I do as he says, the coat looks done but still feels unfinished.

"Now why don't we add some gold chainmail inside? You're gonna be wearing it all the time, might as well throw in some protection."

I make some gold chainmail and put it inside the robe, gold feels oddly strong for some reason.

"And done! You got yourself a flinx fur coat, and you still have some leftover fur, which means we can make a new summoning staff for you, do you have more gold?"

I nod.

"Good, here let me show you how to make one..."

The guide teaches me how to make a 'flinx staff' and I follow his teachings, it's a staff made primarily of gold with a large tuff of flinx fur at the top.

"So, now that that's finished, why don't you test it? Same as before."

I hesitate to summon for a few uncomfortable seconds, but I decide to try and summon something "Maybe I'll get another buddy..."

I aim at the floor, close my eyes, and focus on summoning, I hear a weird noise once again, and when I open my eyes, I see a flinx in front of me, except it's fur has a slight purple tint to it and it has a bun of fur behind its head.

It looks around in confusion for a second, mumbling something indecipherable, if you weren't me of course, I knew what it said.

Gruff mumbling* (Huh? Where am I? What's happening?)

This one seems a lot more clueless when it comes to being summoned compared to bird, I decide to get his attention to clear things up.

"Um, hey-" the flinx quickly takes notice of me, he doesn't seem very happy.

Angry gruff mumbling* (Hol' up! Yer da one who killed me! Me last death was yer fault!)

Uh oh.

Angry gruff mumbling* (Oh I'm gonna pound yer face into a red slushy!)

The flinx jumps at my me and tries stomping my face, but the attack does nothing, all I felt was my face getting 'tapped', I figured that would happen.

Aggressively confused gruff mumbling* (What the?! But I gave mah all into that one! Ya didn't didn't even flinch!)

The guide chuckles "Seems you got beef with it, you can try de-summoning this one, then you can just summon another, easy."

Gruff mumbling* (De-what now? Wait, ya tryna to get rid of me?! Like I'd even let ya try ya little-)

I de-summon the flinx, cutting it off before it could say another word.

"Now just summon another, chances are it'll be a completely different flinx."

I use my staff to summon a flinx again.

Gruff mumbling* (-Bubble-faced mook-)

I quickly de-summon, that's the same flinx.

"Was that the same one? Well, there was a chance for that to happen, just summon another."

I summon a flinx again.

Gruff mumbling* (-Blind ass walloper-)

De-summon.

"Was that the same one again? How unlucky, just try again, third time's the charm."

Alright, summon.

Gruff mumbling* (-Butter-brained eejit-)

De-summon, this is already getting repetitive.

"Maybe... Just keep trying until you get a different one?"

I repeatedly summon and de-summon to try and get a different flinx.

Repeatedly cut off gruff mumbling* (Halfwitted- nosepicking- eye raping- idiotic-)

I stop summoning and just look at the guide in frustration.

"Hm, seems it's not working, perhaps you're subconsciously summoning the same flinx?"

"So... I have no other choice but to keep this flinx?"

"You have other choices, but this might be the easiest."

I think about this for a moment, I decide to summon the flinx again.

Gruff mumbling* (dirt eating... Oh wait, ya stopped! Now I can finish me insult! Ya-)

Before he could say another word, I grab him and cover his mouth.

"Now listen here Mr. Flinx, I'm sorry I murdered you and all but I really need a strong summon like you to help me, so cooperate with me here, alright?" I uncover his mouth.

Gruff mumbling* (Ha! Like I'd risk mahself over a weak-legged baldie like you! No deal!)

"You won't even be risking anything! You'll be invulnerable! Like my bird! Remember him?"

Gruff mumbling* (That bird... So that's why I just went through 'em, hmm...)

The flinx stops for a moment, he seems to be thinking about this.

Gruff mumbling* (So, if I go with ya, I'll be completely invulnerable, and get to kick as much arse as I want?)

"Uh, yes-"

Excited gruff mumbling* (WELL WHY DIDN'T YA SAY THAT EARLIER, I ACCEPT, I FINALLY WON'T BE PREY ANYMORE!)

"Uh, yeah! Just keep in mind that if I die, you'll die too, okay?"

Gruff mumbling* (Don'tcha worry sweetheart! If keeping you alive's what keeping me invincible then goddess-damn I will destroy anyone who dares to even touch ya!)

The guide chuckles "Looks like you got along from the way he's mumbling, now, remember you can summon two now, so try summoning another."

"Oh right! I almost forgot!" I put the flinx down and readied my staff.

I point my staff beside the flinx, then I focus to summon another.

Another flinx appears, nearly identical to the previous one, the only difference being the shape of its nose, its voice was also more... nasal?

Nasal mumbling* (I swear if I re-appear next to that damned slime again I'll... Wait, where- Wait! This isn't the ice caves! What the!)

The new flinx looks around in confusion, then he looks at me, and gets visibly very angry.

Angry nasal mumbling* (YOU! You gave me the most humiliating death yet! I couldn't even move and you dared have the final blow be by a damn bird that I couldn't even touch! Oh I'm gonna pummel-)

Gruff mumbling* (Don't waste ya breath mate, we can't hurt 'er, but seems that if we work for 'er we can be as invincible as that bird! We can attack directly into a foe's mouth without even getting tickled, but only long as she's up and kickin')

Nasal mumbling* (Wait really? Well then, I'm sold! You're forgiven whip lady!)

"Phew, what a relief, thank you, erm, gruff flinx?"

Gruff mumbling* (No problem Miss)

"Well then Ashley, seems everything's figured out."

Gruff mumbling* (Yeah!)

Nasal mumbling* (Yes!)

"He can't understand you, only I can, it's a summoning perk."

Gruff mumbling* (Oh)

Nasal mumbling* (Oh)

"Now, I have something for you to do, I want you and Melwyn to go to the desert to check on Ryan and Magnolia, be sure to help them if they need any help at all alright?"

We nod, but without even getting the chance to move, we hear someone knocking on the door, I go open the door to see who it was.

I was expecting one of the 'guests', but instead it was a complete stranger: a blonde woman wearing a nurse attire, with an unreasonably short skirt, and for whatever reason, high heels, she was also holding what appeared to be a med kit.

"Hey, who here's called 'Andrew', heard he's the boss of this place." She said in an annoyed tone.

The guide quickly scurried over to the door "M-Me! I'm Andrew, what is someone like you doing here?"

"You know her?" I ask the guide.

"And you don't?" The nurse said, she sounds offended.

"Ah, forgive them; Ashley, Melwyn, this is Kaitlyn Romatodd, the greatest doctor in all of Terraria, known across the lands for being able to peform life-saving surgeries in less than a minute."

"Hmph, this is the first time someone actually called me doctor."

"Of course, it's the proper term-"

"Don't call me doctor again, I've gotten used to nurse."

"Why are you wearing that..." I ask.

"What? Actual 'Doctor clothes' looks shit, can't a lady have style?"

"Anyway, you haven't answered why you're here yet miss nurse." The guide said.

"How impatient, anyway, I was making my way to some big city hospital that wanted me, thing is the carriage I was in was raided by goblins, they captured me and were heading towards their base or whatever, luckily slime suddenly started to rain, which distracted the goblins, I managed to recover my medical supplies and made a run for it, now I'm here."

"You ran with heels?" I asked.

"You learn to do that when you use them 24/7."

"Hold on, slime started to rain?" The guide said in a concerned tone.

"Yeah, it was a goddess-send."

"Oh no, MELWYN! ASHLEY! RUN TO THE DESERT AND BRING THE OTHER TWO HERE, NOW!" The guide suddenly yelled.

Me and Melwyn, of course, started running like hell, I would have never expected the guide to get that distressed ever.

We arrived at the desert very quickly thanks to my boots and his sandstorm in a bottle, now we have to find Ryan and Magnolia.

Thankfully, they already left the underground, because we saw them exiting from a hole in the sand, along with a guy in golfing clothes.

I ran towards them as fast as I could "Ryan! Magnolia! Slime rain! Urgent! House quick!" I was too anxious to say words right.

"Woah, hold on there, breathe, we need to understand what you're saying." Magnolia said.

Thankfully, Melwyn spoke for me "The guide wanted to bring you two back home quickly, he got really distressed once he heard about some sort of 'slime rain'."

Ryan sighed "That would be easy had it just be us 4, but we found the fox girl's brother here, how will we-"

"No time! Maggie! Take this mirror and teleport back home! You use your mirror Ryan! Melwyn will take golf guy home!" I handed my mirror to Magnolia, she and Ryan looked at each other with a concerned face before finally using the mirrors.

"Finally! Grab the golfer Melwyn we're running back home!" Melwyn obliged and threw the golf man over his shoulder (He took off the cactus armor before that of course).

"W-Woah! Wait a second! You guys didn't even introduce yourselves! I didn't give you permission for this." The golf man said.

"Sorry! This is urgent!"

We start running back home as fast as we could.

"I find it weird you're this distressed Ashley, we don't even know what's going to happen." Melwyn said.

"Wait! So there's not even a reason for all this urgency?!" Said the golf guy.

"Of course there is! if the guide got that distressed it must be serious business! If something's gonna happen it's not gonna be good!"

We quickly get home, we go to the workshop's entrance where the guide was when we left, he's still there, now with Ryan and Magnolia with him.

The guide notices our arrival "Ah, goodness you two, you got here quick, Ryan and Magnolia just got here."

"Yes, fast, good, what's the problem now?" I say as Melwyn puts the golf man down.

"First thing is, slime will start falling out of the sky soon, a slime rain." The guide says, as if on cue, we hear splat and squish noises all around us, I look around, there are slimes raining as far as the eye can see.

"But that's not the real reason I'm so worried, slime rains are just the beginning, something far more dangerous will appear soon, I want you four to be prepared, now, let's switch around a few items between you, Ashley, give your stronger healing potions to Melwyn."

I hand my healing potion to him, Magnolia realizes something after seeing the potion.

"Oh! I got some of those healing potions too!" She says.

"Good, give those to Melwyn, Melwyn, put your armor back on, and go make a grappling hook for Ashley, Ryan, how many frostburn arrows do you have?"

"About 600."

"Good enough, reminder to keep your distance off the enemy, that goes for all of you, except Melwyn, while you don't want to go right up to them, you'll want to be the focus of the enemy, keep that in mind." Melwyn nods and goes to the workshop to make the grappling hook.

"Magnolia, unfortunately that wand of frosting might be too weak to help us, you might want to help in other ways."

"Actually, I got a new baby that might make me a bit more helpful." She takes out a weird looking staff with a blue gem at the top.

"A thunder zapper! Good! This will definitely help, also means you can attack at a longer range, alright, you'll be able to attack more if you stay still, remember that."

"I've made the hook." Melwyn said as he left the workshop, handing the newly made grappling hook to me.

"How do I use this?"

"Throw it where you want to go, when it latches onto something, pull as hard as you can." Melwyn explained.

"Okay, I think I got it."

"Alright, now that everything's settled, go to the arena behind the workshop and get ready to fight, now!"

We went behind the workshop, there's a huge arena there that Melwyn made while we were away, I don't even know how I didn't notice it.

Anyway, me and Melwyn stood in the middle of the arena, back to back in order to see where the enemy will come from, Ryan and Magnolia stood on the edges of the arena opposite to each other.

We awaited for the arrival of whatever the threat is, I look around anxiously for something, but all I saw were easy-to-deal-with slimes.

Suddenly, a shadow grew beneath me, actually, it wasn't really a shadow, it's like someone put blue tinted glass in front of a light... Wait...

I look up, there's a huge blue slime falling right above me.

"IT'S COMING FROM ABOVE!" I yell, me and Melwyn dodge to the side right before it can hit us.

It's a gigantic blue slime, wearing a crown encrusted with multiple different types of gems, with a ruby the size of my head at the front of it, and inside the slime king, there seemed to be a person, he looked like a... ninja?

"W-What are you waiting for, minions? Attack!" I command to my minions, though a bit nervously.

Gruff mumbling* (Boy I'm gonna love defeatin' a foe ten times my own size!)

Nasal mumbling* (Now slimes are gonna be the ones trembling with fear!)

The two flinxes jump straight into the slime king, stomping at the top of it, which actually seems to be doing damage!

This snaps everyone out of their idleness, and we start attacking.

Melwyn takes out a pink sword and starts swinging at the air, a pink star would fall out of the sky every few swings, falling straight into the slime king, I could tell it was doing a lot of damage.

Ryan starts shooting frostburn arrows at the slime king, setting it on cold fire.

Magnolia was casting a light blue projectile at the slime king, it flew in a weird zigzag pattern, but she had to for a bit wait after casting it about 3 times, nonetheless, she looked like she was really enjoying it.

After 3 seconds of standing still, the slime king jumped, and boy did it jump high, it managed to reach the upper platform with ease, and that's like, 60 feet in the air!

Also, every time we shot out a big chunk of slime out of it, the chunk would turn into it's own slime that we would also have to worry about, and that happened a lot, it felt like the slime king was even ripping out chunks itself just to make more slimes.

Speaking of which, there was a special type of slime that would come of the king, a spiky slime that would shoot out its spikes, which is a big problem since Melwyn is standing pretty close to the slime king to make more use of his sword.

I decided to put my focus on the smaller slimes instead of the king, whipping the slimes and commanding the flinxes to also focus on them.

Unfortunately, the slime king took notice of this (I didn't even think it could! I thought it was as dumb as a normal slime!) and started to jump towards me.

This caught me by surprise, I didn't have enough time to dodge out of the way (I also forgot about the hook I had), all I did was brace for impact as it was falling towards me.

But suddenly, Melwyn jumped straight into it with a burst from the sandstorm bottle! The slime king flew into another direction, and Melwyn was on top of it!?

Melwyn stuck it's legs into the slime king, ignoring the fact that it was trying to digest him and also that it was burning in cold fire, he started rapidly stabbing it with his sword, almost looking like he was trying to kill the ninja inside.

The slime king rapidly shrunk from the damage, until it was as tall as Melwyn, then, Melwyn brought the sword above his head, and struck at the slime king in one final almighty swing! The slime king exploded into several normal slimes, sending Melwyn several feet backwards.

I quickly took care of the slimes before running towards Melwyn, he was severely wounded and was also knocked out, thankfully his armor mitigated the frostburn damage, but his legs were completely digested from the knees and below.

I remembered the nurse, and decided to carry Melwyn to her, surprisingly, I could lift him over my shoulder, but he was still very heavy, I ran as fast as I could trying to find the nurse, ignoring the spikes from his armor.

I could see that the nurse was inside the workshop along with the guide, I ran inside, putting Melwyn on the workbench.

This surprised them, more so the nurse.

"Melwyn's wounded, help!"

"I can see that, what the heck did he even do to have his legs digested like this, normally it's part their face when it comes to slimes." The nurse said

"Doesn't matter! Please treat him!"

"Alright, first we'll have to remove his armor, luckily its cactus so it'll be easier to-"

Before she could finish what she said, I moved my hand over to his armor and put it in my inventory, the nurse is visibly surprised by this.

"...alright, his legs are pretty screwed up, even the bone has been digested, the only thing I could do is clean up the residue slime and bandage it up, I could accelerate the cicatrization process if I had a healing potion, but-"

I hand her a lesser healing potion.

"Oh, could be better but we take what we have."

She cleans up the residue in what remains of his legs, then makes him drink the healing potion, his legs start rapidly healing, but it doesn't just cicatrize, it starts rapidly growing back, it halts after a second, the bone specifically has almost entirely grown back.

The nurse looks very surprised "W-What?! I thought I was healing a human! What is this guy?"

"Doesn't matter for now, but look, if you look very closely at his legs, they're regenerating." The guide says.

The nurse looks closely at his legs, she can see his flesh slowly regenerating, the regeneration is also gradually accelerating.

"Well then, this is easier than expected, even his frostbite marks are disappearing now that I'm taking a closer look at them, and he's somehow not even bleeding! just leave him to rest then, put him in a bed or something, but keep it clean!" The nurse says as she puts her medical supplies back into their case.

"Phew, thank you, by the way, where's that golfer guy?" I ask the guide.

"I told him where his sister was, he's in her house right now, where are the other two?"

"Ah, Ryan and Maggie? I'm not sure, I think they're still in the arena?"

Meanwhile...

Magnolia's POV

Holy crap, Melwyn got seriously screwed up, that was crazy! He went mad or something and jumped straight into that thing! And now he's legless! But I mean, he'll be fine right? Ashley already went to save him and all, I'm more interested in what this king slime left behind...

"Magnolia, what are you on about?" Ryan suddenly says.

"Wh- huh?"

He sighs "You're thinking out loud."

"Oh, was what I said bad?"

"I'm afraid what you said is very inconsiderate of you, that said, I admit I had a similar thought process."

I chuckle "And instead of worrying about our friend, we're gonna defile a corpse! Is this ninja dude even dead anyway?"

I grabbed the ninja by his shoulder and took off his mask, he is naught but skin and bones, everything else has been... digested.

"Oh look! A literal husk of man!" I say while making the ninja corpse 'look' towards Ryan.

"You're not taking any of this very seriously."

"Yeah and what? He'll come back from the dead to tell me to respect his corpse?" I chortle.

"That's not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about Melwyn, let's at least seem considerate of him and get this over quick and check if he's fine- why is the ninja naked."

He looks at the now naked dead ninja, and then a ninja suit wearing me, which is contemplating herself in her fashionable ninja suit.

"A bit oversized, but that's what I like anyway."

Ryan sighs again "I give up, I'm just going to see this thing's crown."

He goes over to the crown, which is, by the way, almost as tall as he is.

"This could give us a lot of gold, the gems are also a plus, however, we do not know if this crown has a special property, so we should leave it alone for now, we're gonna consult the guide about it later." He looks over to the ground after he says this, he notices something strange.

There are several small balls of gold colored gel scattered around the crown.

"What are these things?" Ryan says.

"I dunno, let's see..." I grab one of the golden gel.

They look like a ball of gel, except they have a gold color, they're a lot like rubber, they feel like bouncy balls.

"I think they do something, I wonder what it looks like on fire..."

"Hey, let's not jump to things now, since you already grabbed that one, collect the rest and then let's consult the guide, after asking about Melwyn, of course."

"Alright, Mr. Captain!"

I collect all the beads of golden gel with my 'slight telekinesis' (Finally got to use it on something!) and followed Ryan to the workshop.

The door was open, we looked inside and saw Melwyn laying on a workbench, despite the exposed flesh, he's not bleeding, also, is it just me or is his leg not as hurt as before?

"Ah, there you are, I see you took looting what was left of king slime as higher priority than helping out your colleague." The guide says before chuckling.

"What? Nooo, We were running to get here! We didn't even register that the big slime had left stuff behind-"

"Maggie, you are wearing the ninja's suit right now." Ryan says.

I look at Ryan, then I look at myself, I quickly take off the ninja suit.

"As I was saying, didn't grab a thing!" I say with a smirk.

The guide laughs "It's alright, already in the past anyway, just remember to take priority of your colleagues preservation next time."

I nod.

"Is Melwyn fine?" Ryan asks.

"Yes, currently not in the best conditions but in a few minutes he should be up and running, literally."

"Wait, so-"

"Terrarians can regenerate lost limbs, great news, huh?" Guide says, cutting Ryan off.

"Terrarian? So that's what this guy is then, are you three also Terrarians?" The nurse points to Ashley, Ryan and me.

"Yes they are, why the question?" The guide says.

"I figured that the other ones might be special too, and 'Terrarian'? That name feels important, I think I'll stay here, whatever this is I wanna be a part of it."

"Alright then, very good, you can go pick a spot outside for where you want your house to be if you want." The guide says to the nurse, she quickly heads outside.

"Now, before I forget, Ryan, Magnolia, what did you find in the underground desert?"

Me and Ryan look at each other.

"Ah... Well..."

Earlier at the desert...

Ryan's POV

Me and Magnolia have arrived at the desert, we must now find a way underground.

"So! Do you have any clues on where to start?" Magnolia asks me.

"I only know of two ways we could reach the underground, one is through the pyramid that Melwyn found, but even then it's not guaranteed that it's connected to the underground, it's only a guess, the other more straightforward option would be to dig."

"Not looking foward to the second option, let's risk it on that pyramid!"

I sigh "Of course."

We walk around for a bit looking for the pyramid that Melwyn found.

Unbeknownst to me, there was a giant antlion hole right in the direction I was walking, I slip and fall into said hole.

I yell in surprise as I fall, Magnolia gets alerted of my scream and comes to check on me, only to start laughing at me from above.

Fortunately, there was nothing dangerous there, only a hole in the middle that seemed to go even deeper.

Or at least I thought, as a giant antlion emerged out of the hole, its mandibles open ready to snap me in half.

I try to run out of the hole, but sand below me shifts towards the center, making me stay in place despite running, I stop abruptly so the sand stops moving, but the antlion slams it's head on the sand, making the sand shift anyway, I end up having to constantly 'run' in order to not get closer to the antlion.

"Magnolia! Help me!"

"I can't simply jump there to help you! Try killing that thing!"

"It'll kill me before I even start aiming, I can't afford to stay still!"

"Just shoot it while you run! You don't have to hit every shot, I'll even help you kill it!"

I take out my snowball cannon and turn around, I can't afford to pull a bow's string in this situation.

I start shooting at it while running backwards, Magnolia shoots it with her wand, setting it on frostfire.

As I shoot at the antlion, I notice a mound of sand forming in it's mouth, suddenly, it shoots a ball of sand at me.

It manages hits my face, I fall on my back and attempt to clean off the sand stuck together with antlion spit.

I only realized I stopped running when I cleaned off the sand and opened my eyes, and at that point it was too late, the antlion could reach my legs and it was going to snap them in half with its mandibles.

Or at least it would if Magnolia didn't jump in, literally, she jumped on top of that thing with a copper shortsword in hand, and stabbed it through it's head, it screamed in pain for an uncomfortable amount of time before finally dying.

Magnolia fell backwards then looked at me "Phew, you owe me now ya know?"

"Yeah, yeah, thank you."

"Not a problem." She tries pulling the shortsword back, but it snaps by the handle "Aw, I wanted to pull another stunt like that!"

I look at the antlion, and suddenly I get an idea.

I pull the antlion out of the hole, the antlion is... actually shorter than I thought.

I threw the antlion to the side and started to inspect the hole, it goes deep, very deep, potentially into a cave system.

It's too narrow for me to enter however, but I can make it wider by using my pickaxe, so I tell Magnolia to take out her pickaxe and start digging.

We make a hole that went very deep underground, I don't know how many feet deep it was, I didn't count.

At the bottom is what I assumed is the underground the guide talked about, the spherical cacti confirmed this to me.

We carefully travelled through the desert cave, the cave appeared short however, it seemed that it was only 2 chambers stuck together, this gave me another idea however.

I knocked on the sandstone walls, Magnolia looked at me like I was crazy and was about to say some snarky remark, but she was surprised when one of the knocks sounded different, like I had knocked on something hollow, I took out my pickaxe and broke the wall, it lead to another chamber.

"Damn Ryan, guess you are as smart as the way you talk, we don't need the guide anymore." She snorted.

I smiled for a moment, the smile was gone when I realized there was something in this chamber, it was an antlion, except it wasn't stuck to the ground, this one could walk, it could run, and it looked like it was about to charge at me, so I quickly exited this chamber and blocked the entrance with sandstone, I heard it slam into wall.

"What was that?" Magnolia asked in surprise.

"Seemed to be another antlion, except this one can run."

I made a rectangular hole in the entrance, too small for the antlion to pass through, just big enough for us to shoot.

I told Magnolia to shoot at it to her heart's content, and she happily complied, the antlion was dead in a few minutes, minutes that were totally unnecessary, mind you, she could've killed it way faster, she just wanted to extend its misery.

I opened the entrance again and took a better look at the chamber, there wasn't much there, other than antlion eggs of course.

Wait, antlion eggs?

I looked over again, there was a disgusting pulsing sac of what I assumed were antlion eggs, this could be dangerous.

Magnolia entered the chamber and quickly took notice of said eggs, she jumped back, with disgust written all over her face.

"Eugh! What is that!"

"Antlion eggs, I presume."

"Kill it! We should destroy it while it can't harm us."

"I agree."

I took my pickaxe and brought it above my head, I struck the eggs with as much force as I could.

Turns out, it wasn't multiple eggs, it was a single egg, they were simply weirdly shaped, and also, there was a juvenile antlion larva inside, worst of all, my pickaxe strike didn't kill it, it was still alive and was ready to kill.

Before I realized what had happened however, the antlion jumped at my face and started to bite me with its underdeveloped mandibles.

"D'AGH! MAGNOLIA HELP ME!"

"Oh crap! Stay put!"

I fell to my back and tried pulling it out of my face, but it had a surprisingly strong grip on me.

Suddenly, Magnolia grabbed the larva by its head, shoved her wand of frosting up its mouth, and shot a spark of frost inside it, burning it on the inside, it screeched in pain and released its grip on my face, Magnolia threw the larva into a nearby wall, and it shriveled up and died in a blue fire.

She looked back at me, I was trying to process what just happened.

"Oh gosh! You look horrible!" She said laughing.

I touched my face, it seemed I had several bruises on my face, none were serious, but they were still enough to cause bleedings, or at least they normally would, I wasn't bleeding at all.

"Here, wear this, but you have to give it back later!" She handed me her band of regeneration, I put it on, and felt my face regenerating, I sat down and waited for my face to fully regenerate.

"So, '2nd smartest guy I know', what's next?"

"You're never gonna address me by name are you?"

She shakes her head with a smirk.

"Well, I'm not sure, perhaps going deeper will yield better loot, try kicking the ground to see if any part of the floor leads to another chamber."

She begins stomping on the ground, the center of the chamber's floor sounded hollow, meaning it leads to another chamber.

"Oh look! Found it."

My face felt like it stopped regenerating at that point, I looked at my health counter and it said '100/100', meaning I was healed up, I took off the band of regeneration and gave it back to Magnolia.

"Oh man, this thing works better than I thought, you don't even have any scars!" She said while putting her band back on.

I didn't have a non-magic mirror, so I had to take her word for it.

I readied my pickaxe and broke through the floor, making a hole to the next chamber.

Magnolia put up some rope in order to safely get down there.

This chamber felt more like a cave, that or it was multiple chambers in one.

We carefully explored this cave, but our exploration was cut short, as 3 antlions of the running type appeared and started charging at us.

We quickly ran back to the previous chamber, climbing up the rope as fast as we could, Magnolia shot at them while climbing, but accidentally hit a round cactus instead.

We heard something like a snap, and the round cactus quickly rolled to our direction, hitting several other cacti in the process, the antlions that were trying to catch us were shredded into pieces by the massive amount of cacti, and the rolling cacti all exploded into spikes when they hit a wall.

Magnolia and I were left unharmed, as we were both well far off the ground, hanging on the rope.

"...Nice." Magnolia said as we both descended into the ground again.

We explored the large chamber, this time uninterrupted, we then saw a cubic structure held up by columns of sandstone, a sandstone door right in front of it, it was an underground cabin.

"Woah, let's loot it!" Magnolia jumped up to the door and opened it, entering the cabin.

I went inside, there, I saw a painting, stairs leading to a second floor, and broken down furniture, not much else.

"Nothing on the first floor, the good loot must be upstairs." She said, going up the stairs, I followed soon after.

Lo and behold, there was a sandstone chest there, begging to be opened.

Magnolia quickly went to see what was in there.

Inside there were the following items: Rope, a few bars of silver, wooden arrows, healing potions, 2 o-shaped bottles with yellow liquid, torches, and silver coins.

And most of all, and the first thing Magnolia took out of the chest, was a weird looking staff with a blue gem on top, she looked mesmerized by it.

I took all the other chest items plus the chest itself while she inspected the staff.

She then pointed the staff at a wall, suddenly, a blue 4 pointed star shaped projectile was shot from the staff, it travelled in a zig-zag pattern before hitting the wall.

Magnolia looked starry-eyed, like she's a kid who just got a new toy, in a way, she is.

There wasn't anything else of interest there, so we left the cabin, Magnolia still had her eyes glued to the staff the whole time.

We dug through the underground desert more, Magnolia's new staff proved to be quite useful when dealing with the antlions.

Speaking of antlions, I think we also found the adult stage of these things, it was thinner and had wings, looked more like a dragonfly, still gigantic, however, it seemed to be weaker than the juvenile antlion, or at least the walking variant, peculiar.

I had also come across some weird type of sandstone, or maybe it was ore? I'll need to consult the guide about this, anyway, this weird stone seemed to be fragile, and also appeared to have... animal bones in it? I have my doubts, like I just said, I'll need to consult the guide later, I collected a good amount of this 'ore'.

Eventually, I found another sandstone chest, strangely, it wasn't in a cabin, it was out in open, technically.

I suspected it was a trap, but further investigation showed it was just a normal chest, I opened it and found the following items:

39 glowing arrows that were really light, a heart shaped yellow potion, and a pair of brown boots.

...

That's it.

Honestly, I would've felt really disappointed if not for the fact that I have no idea what these do.

I collected the arrows and the potion, I wondered what these arrows did, so I took out my bow and charged a shot with it.

I shot the arrow, it hit above the spot I was aiming at, way above, it's like it ignored gravity, probably the reason these feel so light.

However, when I went look at the where it landed, there was no trace of the arrow, only a arrow-shaped hole, must be the downside.

I came back to take the boots and the chest.

Curious as to what the boots did, I decided to put them on, I didn't feel anything different at first, until I walked with them.

Just walking around normally felt like I was running at full speed, and when I actually ran? Then I would hit myself headfirst into a wall because I couldn't control that much speed.

For the sake of not hurting myself, I decided to take them off for the time being.

Suddenly, Magnolia came to where I was "I heard a loud thud, did something happen here?"

"Magnolia? Where... Where were you?"

"Oh I uh... I took a forked path and found another cabin, got too excited and forgot about you."

"Oh, it's alright, I found another chest too, it wasn't too exciting, what did you find?"

"I found 5 bars of gold, 2 gravitation potions and a thorns potion, 3 potions that look like healing potions, but the bottle has a gold ring around it, it also looks like it's glowing a bit."

She shows me the presumed healing potion, it does indeed look like it's glowing "Better not try it for now, it would be better to ask the guide about it later."

Magnolia nods, but her face suddenly gets an evil smile, she's looking at her inventory, whatever item she's looking at is not good.

"Hehe, I also got something really exciting in that chest, look." She puts out her hand, and an object appears in her hand.

The object in question is, undoubtedly, a stick of dynamite.

I immediately snatch it off her hands.

"HEY!"

"I don't trust you with things like this." I say as I put the high-grade explosive into my inventory, hopefully it can't explode there.

"Tch, well, it's not the last thing I found in that chest, I also found this shell." A seashell appears in her hand, it doesn't look as dangerous as the dynamite.

"I feel like it does something, but I haven't been able to figure it out, if it even does anything in the first place that is."

"Hm, we should consult the guide about this, let's go back."

"Wait, I actually snatched another thing in that cabin!"

"Really? What is it?"

She proceeded to place a giant machine of iron on the ground.

"...What is this."

"I don't know, but it looks cool and probably has a use, so I snatched it!"

I sigh "Look, let's just go back now alright?"

She nods and grabs the machine back, we backtrack to the antlion hole we came from, but as we get near surface level we hear a strange sound, not one of the antlions, but the sound of... something hitting a small ball I suppose? That's the closest thing I can relate the sound to.

We carefully approach the source of said sound, it came from the chamber where I got my face mauled by that larva, we're right below that chamber.

Suddenly we saw a small white ball fall from the hole above, it was a golf ball, interesting.

We climbed the rope to that chamber, and in it, we saw a dark skinned man in golf attire, with a golf club in hand.

He was surprised by our sudden arrival, evident by his scream of fear, but he quickly calmed down once he realized we weren't monsters.

"Oh! Actual people, thank goodness, I'm saved!" He said.

"Yeah, uh, what are doing here? You don't look like the sort of guy that just wanders into places like this." Magnolia said.

"Uh, so, funny story, me and my sister decided to travel around to somewhere no one ever did, just for the sake of doing so, we decided to travel to somewhere bordering the danger-lands thinking we would stay out of trouble that way, but we were attacked while I was driving in our car, we crashed into a tree, thankfully we came out fine, but our car blew up and that attracted a lot of slimes, they chased after my sister and myself, we ended up going separate ways, that was yesterday, now I'm trying to find my sister, but I slipped into a hole while wandering in the desert."

"Huh, actually, I believe we already found your sister." I said.

"Wait, really?!"

"Yes, she's in our home base, but I want to know something first." Magnolia said

"Yes?"

"What attacked you?"

"Oh, erm, it's... actually a bit embarrassing, it was a... small, pink, slime..."

Magnolia was holding herself from laughing after he said that.

"B-But don't underestimate that thing, it managed to put a giant dent in our door, which was the reason I accidentally crashed into a tree."

Magnolia looked at him with amusement, with a slight hint of surprise in her face.

The golfer just sighed "Well, now that that's clear, can we leave this place? It's getting a bit unnerving."

"Sure, may I know your name first?" I asked him.

"Oh! I must have forgotten how to introduce myself properly, forgive me." He clears his throat "My name is William Bian, professional golfer and former adventurer, and your name is?"

"Ryan, and this is Magnolia." I say, pointing to Maggs.

"Very well, erm, is 'Ryan' your last name, Mr. Ryan?"

"We don't have last names, long story."

The golfer looks intrigued, but doesn't touch on it, we head to the surface, exiting out of the antlion hole, then Ashley ran to us and... well, everything else happened.

Back to the present...

"...and that's everything we got at the desert, can you explain the new loot now?" I ask the guide, after detailing everything about our adventure in the desert.

"Alright." The guide stretches for a moment, despite the fact that he is only going to be using his voice "Those o-potions are shine potions, it makes you radiate light, eliminating the need to hold a torch all the time. The glowing arrows are jester's arrows, they are not affected by gravity when shot, and can also pierce anything, though they disappear 2 seconds after being shot. The heart shaped yellow potion is a spelunker potion, it lets you see things you subconsciously find valuable through walls, though it has limited range, and only works on inanimate objects. As for the boots, I think you should put them on again."

"But their speed is hard to manage-"

"On sand, unlike other speedy boots, the Dunerider Boots are extra fast on sand, though still fast on normal ground, their speed can feel overwhelming in tight spaces with sand, it should be alright here."

I look at him in a bit of doubt, then I hesitantly put on the 'dunerider boots'.

To my surprise, the speed boost of the boots isn't as high as before, the guide was right, like every other time, I don't know why I keep doubting him.

"Moving on, to explain further the 'stronger healing potion' fiasco, the healing potions without the golden rings are actually considered lesser healing potions, the gold ringed ones are considered just regular healing potions, even then, the regulars are 2 times stronger than the lessers, so keep that in mind. As for the dynamite, we currently don't really have use for it, it's just a stronger bomb that is also way more dangerous." The guide says, Magnolia frowns upon hearing these news.

"The seashell is the most exciting thing out of all of this, it's a magic conch, it can teleport you to a beach, what beach it will teleport you to is determined by which direction you hear it from." The guide explains.

"Hear?" Magnolia questions.

"The magic conch will teleport you if you put the shell in your ear and close your eyes, the sound coming from the shell will sound like a beach, it's very realistic at that, by the moment you open your eyes you will realize you are actually in a beach."

Magnolia put the conch on her ear to see if it was true, mere moments after closing her eyes, she disappeared in a spiral of water, presumably teleported, after an uncomfortable amount of time, Magnolia returned exclaiming "IT WORKS!"

"Of course it does, now, about that machine, Magnolia's the one who has it right?"

"I am!"

"Right, put it near the other workstations will you?" Magnolia nods and places the machine on the ground.

"This is an extractinator, as the name suggests, it can extract things from others things, like stilt, slush, some weird looking desert stone that are actually fossils." The guide said looking directly at me, I realize he is talking about the weird sandstone I collected earlier.

I walk to the extractinator with desert fossils in hand, I look to the guide awaiting instructions.

"To process the desert fossils, just input them through the slot on the back."

I look behind the extractinator, there is indeed a slot there, I put as much fossil as I can there.

The machine whirls to life, loudly processing the fossils, a multitude of items fall out of another slot in the extractinator, including ore, gems, and most predominantly, hard-looking fossil chunks.

These chunks seem important, as the guide ignored everything else in favor of the fossil.

He grabs one out of the pile "This, is a sturdy fossil, it's as hard as silver, and has some special attributes that you might find useful." The guide hands me a sturdy fossil "Why don't we make some armor?"

"Armor made of fossils? How is that going to help me?" I ask.

"You'll understand when you wear it, just make it for now."

I walked over to the anvil and followed the guide's instructions on making the fossil armor, the helmet is shaped like a dinosaur skull, weirdly enough.

"Now, put it on."

I put on the armor piece by piece, as soon as I put on the helmet, I felt my senses getting sharper, specifically my vision, I could see intricate details from far away, my motor skills had improved significantly, and I felt physically stronger too.

"How is this possible?" I ask in amazement.

"It's complicated, let's just say the abilities from the ancient predator you're wearing is still imbued onto its fossil, consequently, wearing the armor will give you a dumbed down version of its skills and abilities."

"Dumbed down? This is still just a dumbed down version of its capabilities?"

"Yes, although it is more than enough for now, but don't worry, I'm sure you'll find better armour later, anyway, I think we covered everything."

I remember the slime king loot "Wait! You forgot about the spoils from the slime king!"

"Ah yes, thanks for reminding me, what did you find from king slime?"

Magnolia immediately jumped in front of me, wearing the ninja suit she stole earlier "This ninja suit!" She said excitedly.

The guide laughs "That's not directly related, but sure, that ninja suit could provide some stealth and agility benefits to you, but there are better things for mages out there."

I push Magnolia out of the way before revealing the golden gel to the guide.

"We found these near the slime king's crown, any idea on what it might do?"

The guide inspects the gel "Hm, I believe this is royal gel, they might be able to trick slimes into thinking you're a king slime, effectively turning them docile, putting this on a necklace might do the trick."

"Really? I thought they'd do something else."

"No, not really, did you get anything else from king slime?"

I thought back to the giant crown "Not anything I can bring here, but there is the giant crown, I was wondering if it had any special abilities, if not we could dismantle it for the gold and gems."

"The crown huh? Actually, I believe it is more valuable intact, in fact, Magnolia, come with me, we're going to take a little trip to a little somewhere, everyone else, you're free to do whatever you want, but I recommend you explore that cave magnolia went to earlier, I'll be back at dawn."

The guide left the workshop, and Magnolia quickly followed behind, not before dumping all her items in a chest of course.

I think I'll be sorting chests this afternoon...

Magnolia's POV

After dumping all my items in a chest, I ran to the guide, who was already outside, I quickly catched up to him, the ninja suit really does make me feel a bit faster!

"Guide! Where are we even going, you were all vague regarding that."

"I'll explain later, first, grab that crown will ya?"

"That crown 3 times my size! Do you think I can put that in my inventory?"

"You managed to fit the extractinator on your inventory, I'm sure you can fit the crown too."

I doubt it, but it costs nothing to try I guess.

I went over to the giant crown, put my hands over it, and put it in my inventory, with no effort at all, surprisingly.

I head back to the guide and confirmed that I had it.

"Good, let's go now, we need to get a carriage."

"Uh, a carriage? Why do we need a carriage?"

"We'll be heading to Trapston, to find an adventurer's guild and use the crown as evidence that we killed a king slime, then we sell the crown itself."

"W-We're going to a city?!"

"More-or-less, it's not too fancy a city, it's a lower class one, but yes, we will be, are you excited?"

"It's a bit unexpected, I didn't think we'd ever go to one."

"Well, we will be, try not to get too excited, you'll most likely get disappointed."

We walked for a while before finally getting to a dirt road.

"There, now we wait for a carriage, oh, and by the way, can you stop wearing that ninja suit, you look like an amateur, and a nerd."

I hesitantly took the ninja suit off, it was stylish!

After some time, we saw a carriage approaching, it... Looked nothing like I expected.

For starters, the horses were perfectly synchronized, and ran way faster than they should've.

But that was the least bizarre part of it all, the carriage itself was not made of wood, it was metal, it had tires just like a car, it even had windows like a car, it was definitely not shaped like a car however, it was shaped like... a carriage, I guess.

"Guide... What is this?"

"A carriage, was it not what you expected?"

"I expected it to look different, very different."

"Ah, I think I understand what you mean, I can explain it, though it'll require a bit of context."

As the carriage gets nearer, the guide raises his hand, the carriage slows down, and stops near us "2 gold for each person." The person guiding the horses says.

The guide pays for both us, turns out he had some money with him.

We get inside the carriage, the horses start running again, and we sit down on the available seats.

"So, what's the main thing that puzzles you about this carriage?" The guide asks me.

"Why does it look like this?"

"Simple, it's just making good use of the technology available, the steel is durable and cheap, the tires are just better than wagon wheels."

"Then why not just make a car?"

"Ah, I see your confusion, you see, the technology and wealth in the world is not evenly distributed, the majority of places still only use swords, bows, and muskets, some places can make semi-automatic firearms, and very few can afford to make AI targeting rockets."

"Why is it not evenly distributed?"

"The upper classes are weary on giving their technology to the lower class, as they want to stay on top."

"Then, how is this carriage like this."

"The upper classes can't help but trade, they give technology that can't be reverse engineered or made by lower classes in exchange for food, they lack farmland you see."

"Can't they just get land by force?"

"They could, if they weren't cowards, they're also weary of magic users, wizards and the likes, who are also weary of technology more advanced than a ballpoint pen, fools they are, fools, however, some are more open minded, which lead to the creation of carriages like these, that use magic horses in combination of car technology, it can't beat a car, but it's far better than a 'normal' carriage."

"Okay... I think I got it..."

"You better, also, we just arrived at Trapston, let's go."

We left the carriage, the first thing I see is a sign, saying: 'Welcome to Trapston, home of the trap.' along with a statue of a man stepping on a button, about to get crushed by a boulder.

Of course, I lost my shit, almost fell to the ground from laughing "They really know what to be proud of!"

"Come on, cut it out, I'd like to make this quick."

"Alright, alright, I'll stop."

We entered the city, I was disappointed of course, it was just some medieval looking town, but it looked way cleaner than I expected, there were even some signs of a crude plumbing system.

"Is this really were the trap was first invented?"

"No, but the citizens sure like to believe it is."

After a bit of walking, we found an adventurer's guild, there were several people in and around the guild, they certainly looked like adventurers.

We entered the building, there was a big board on the wall, with multiple posters with various quests pinned to it.

There was also a guy behind a counter handling paperwork, the guide was approaching this man, so he seemed important.

"Hello guild master, we have come to collect the reward for defeating a monster." The guide said.

"Never seen you two before, very well, what type of monster did you slay?"

"A slime, a King Slime."

The guild master blinked in disbelief "A king slime, you two? You two singlehandedly defeated a king slime?! Preposterous! You aren't even wearing armor!"

"Oh believe me, I didn't do a thing, she did, along with 3 other friends, they're not here though."

"Look, if you want, I can give you some low level quests and you can complete those, then collect their reward, you can't just expect to lie like this and reap the benefits, I-" As the guild master was making his rant, the guide looked at me with a face that very definitely said 'It's time to show off'

I placed the giant crown in the middle of the room, making a loud KLANG! sound.

The guide and I both looked at the guild master with a smirk.

The guild master approached the crown, he took out a magnifying glass and closely inspected the crown.

"It- It really is a king slime crown..." The guild master said, slowly turning towards us with shock plastered all over his face.

"So, can we collect our reward now?"

The guild master sighed "Yes, let me go get my money bag."

He went behind counter and took out a large sack that appeared to be filled with coins.

He spilled a few gold coins on the counter and started counting.

"...11, 12, 13, 14, 15! 15 gold coin reward for killing a king slime, please take it and leave."

I collected the 15 gold and took the golden crown back, we left the adventurer's guild, everyone was looking at us in awe, at least I think it was awe.

"That felt awesome! I expected more gold though." I said to the guide.

"Nah, it's a reasonable amount, a decent mid-level party could easily defeat a king slime, it's not that big a deal."

"I see, now we're supposed to sell the crown right? But I thought this town was poor, is there any place around that can afford it?"

"There's a auction house here that some rich people like to attend, we'll go there and sell the crown."

"Alright."

After a few twists and turns, we arrived at the auction house, we entered it, there was a bunch of people bidding for fancy furniture, paintings, etc.

The guide went talk to a guy, he was the owner of the auction house apparently, he struck up a deal with the guide to auction the crown, though the owner would take 20 percent of the winning bid.

We went up to the auction stage, and I placed down the crown, the guide announced the item, and people flocked to us, yelling how much money they were willing to pay, it settled on 42 gold coins, which is... Way less than I thought.

The guide seemed happy with it though, with the percentage fee giving us about 33 gold and 60 silver, add this up with the guild reward and its 48 gold!

We left the auction house, at this point we had nothing else to do, so we were making our way to the city entrance to get a carriage and get back to our house.

Unfortunately, we were interrupted by someone, it was a guy wearing the fanciest most flamboyant clothing ever.

"Hello there madam, you appear to be a fan of magic I see? I have some magical items from all over the world that could interest you." Good grief I don't like how this guy acts, but even then, I am interested, I want to see what this guy has to offer.

I looked at the guide with a look of indecision "Go for it." He said.

"Alright, what do you have to offer?" I asked the blue merchant.

"I'm glad you asked, for mages, I have this mystical robe and magic hat, they're quite powerful when worn together." He showed a sparkling blue hat and a fancy robe, I was starry-eyed.

"H-How much is it?"

"A fair 28 gold!"

"Hold on there." The guide intervened "There's no place on Terraria where a mystic set like this costs 28 gold, you're inflating the price by over 6 times! It's not even from a brand on anything!"

The merchant looked annoyed "I traveled 6 entire continents to get these! Do you think I'd simply-"

"You did not get this that far away, the closest place that makes these is a mere 80 miles away from here, to make these that expensive is simply preposterous."

I thought the merchant would look more annoyed, but he didn't, instead, he looked intrigued "I was supposed to be the only one that knew of that place..." He said to himself quietly.

The merchant thought for a bit "Fine, I'll give you the true price, 6 gold and 50 silver."

"Deal." I paid the exact amount and got the mystic set, I was drooling just at the thought of wearing it.

"Expect to see me again, you got me interested in whatever your deal is, Mr. Knowledge." He turned to leave, but looked back at us at the last second "By the way, my name is Llewellyn Huan Cho, it was a pleasure to meet you." Gosh even his name is pretentious, glad he's gone.

"What's his deal?" I asked the guide

"He's a traveling merchant, a merchant that constantly moves from place to place hoping to sell things deemed exotic."

"No I get that, I wanna know what was HIS deal."

"Ah, well my guess is that I touched on something he deemed impossible for me to know, and now he's going to go down a rabbit hole to know why I knew it the first place, he'll eventually come around to find us, just to ask me himself."

"How would he find us? We live in the middle of nowhere."

"He's a travelling merchant, guys like him can figure out anything just by trading info, it's actually pretty scary."

"I see, is this... Good?"

"Well, when he comes to our base he'll certainly have wares with him, so I see this as a win, now let's get going, it's getting late and we'll miss our carriage."

We ran to the city entrance, passing by the greatest statue on earth, and waited at a dirt path.

"You haven't worn your mystic clothes yet, Magnolia."

"Oh right, I was rushing to get here." I looked through my inventory and found my new magic clothes, I quickly equipped the mystic robe and magic hat, I could feel power coursing through my body, my mana has increased!

"This... Feels amazing!"

"Of course it does, it's magic clothing, it strengthens your magic power and increases you mana level, great, isn't it?"

"For sure!"

Not long after, a carriage approached us, we paid the entrance fee (this time with my money) and got on.

This time, the guide paid close attention to the scenery, since we would stop in the middle of nowhere.

After a while of waiting, we arrived at our spot, and the guide told the coachman to drop them off there.

"Are you sure? the closest city is pretty far off, and the sun is almost setting."

"Don't worry, we have a place to stay here, we'll be fine."

"Alright then, you do you." He opened the carriage doors and we got out, after that, the carriage ran off, and we were back to where we started.

"Well then, let's go maggs." The guide said, walking back to our home.

We quickly arrived to our home base, the sun was setting, and the townfolk were entering their homes, there were also more houses, and they were, for whatever reason, far apart from eachother.

I entered the workshop, Melwyn, Ashley and Ryan were circled around counting something.

"Hey guys! I'm back!" I said to them.

"Oh! Hey maggs!" Ashley said.

Ryan looked at me and saw my mystic outfit "What's with the magician's clothing?"

"A magic hat and a Mystic robe, ya jealous?"

"Just curious."

"Well, if you're so interested, it enhances my magic power and raises my mana level, I now have..." I visualized my mana points "...80 mana!"

"That's a big upgrade."

"It's glorious, isn't it? What do you think, Melwyn?"

"Huh? Oh, it's pretty good, I also got new armor."

"Wait, really? What did you get?"

Melwyn equipped bronze colored armor, he looked like a gladiator.

"Ooo, what does that do?"

"Not much, apart from being pretty good defensively, it makes me unable to be moved by the enemy."

"What does that mean?"

"I- well, hm, you could say it makes me immune to... Knockback... I guess."

"Oh, that makes sense! That's pretty useful if that's the case, where'd ya get that, anyway?"

"In the underground, there was a specific section made of marble, it was full of undead skeleton hoplites, I collected the usable armor pieces they had."

"Neat, I uh, bought mine."

"You bought it? I thought you put all your coins in a chest." Said Ryan.

"Oh right, forgot to say, the guide and I went on a adventure to get money, I got 48 gold there!"

"How did you get so much money?" Ashley asked.

"I went to a city and sold the crown!"

"Oh, alright."

...

"Is it... Not that big a deal?"

"Why would it?"

"Well I mean... It felt special to me..."

"I'm sure it was an interesting experience, but sooner a later we would have to go to one." Ryan said boldly.

I sigh "Fine, what were you doing, anyway?"

"Oh, we were trying to distribute some life crystals we found evenly among us."

"Cool, how many do we have?"

"9, 2 for each of us, but we have one spare, we're wondering if we should give it to Melwyn or not."

"I say we do, poor Melwyn here got his legs digested, he deserves the extra health, and will probably need it if he wants to pull something like that again, how are you holding up by the way?"

"I'm good, woke up on my bed with Ashley sitting next to me, my legs were fully healed up by that point, so I didn't realize they were digested in the first place."

"Alright then, we can distribute the life crystals now." Ryan says, giving us 2 life crystals each, with the exception of Melwyn, who received an extra life crystal.

I couldn't break the crystal with my hands like Melwyn, so I resorted to slamming it against the wall, which went quite well! I visualized my health points, and I have 140 health now.

But the real impressive part is Melwyn having 220 health now, he has more than double the health he originally had! It's crazy.

I wonder what the maximum is, if we have one at all.

By this point it was already nighttime, the guide barged in to give us tasks.

Or rather, just me.

"Magnolia, come with me again, you'll like this one."

"Already? I just went to a faraway city."

"Don't worry, you'll barely even leave the vicinity, now come on."

I got out the workshop and followed the guide, but the only thing he did was go to his house's front door.

He yawned "Alright Magnolia, I have something to keep you busy tonight, look at the sky."

I looked up "...You want me to look at the night sky all night?"

"Oh, excume my poor choice of words, look to the horizon, and listen carefully."

I looked at the distance, listening to everything around me, I only heard crickets.

But suddenly, something fell from the sky, making a high pitched noise as it fell, it sounded... Magical, it could only be.

It hit the ground, hitting a faraway zombie in the process, it utterly annihilated it, the zombie was simply pulverized.

Looking closer, the object that fell from the sky appeared to be... a star, a cartoony looking 5-pointed star.

"Is that... Is that really a-"

"A fallen star, it is quite literally concentrated magic, remember when I talked about the mana crystal on your shirt?"

"A mana crystal, made from fallen stars, which are concentrated magic..." I recited his own words "I didn't think it'd look just like this though, I thought it was just the shirt."

"Well, don't you want to make a mana crystal? You already know that a life crystal gives 20 health to someone, can you guess what a mana crystal does?" The guide says with a smirk.

My eyes widen at the realization, I look back at the fallen star, and immediately ran full speed at it.

The fallen star wasn't actually that far, I got to it pretty quickly, once I got close to it, I lunged at it and grabbed it as if it was a living animal.

Holding it felt like eating something overwhelmingly sweet, except the sweetness was magic, even then, I couldn't stop contemplating it, it's bright yellow color along with it's subtle blue aura, it was all so hypnotizing, I love it.

After a moment however, I realize I don't really know what to do with it, nor do I know how to make a mana crystal, so I get up and run to the guide.

"You're finally back, you sat there for an uncomfortable amount of time you know?"

"I was just contemplating the star! Anyway, how do I make the mana crystal?"

"You need 5 fallen stars for that, after you get 5 of them, just stack them all on top of each other and force them together until they've fused into one thing, that thing will be the mana crystal, that's it." He yawned "Anyway, the fallen star does have some other uses, though I'm too tired to list them now, and they're not that important anyway, I'm going to sleep now." He entered his house and locked the door, I just stood there, not knowing what to do.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of falling stars, not just one falling star, multiple.

I looked around and located the nearest fallen star, I immediately ran to it, collected it, then ran to another fallen star, completely ignoring any hostile creature.

Eventually (and rather quickly), I managed to gather 5 fallen stars, I did as the guide said, stacked them on top of each other and forced them together.

It took some effort, but I manage to make them fuse together, it created a bright deep blue flash of light, when the light dissipated, I could take a better look at the mana crystal.

It looked like the life crystal, but blue and star shaped, it didn't feel like holding 5 fallen stars at once, it was like all the magic emanating from the fallen stars were now sealed and contained inside the mana crystal.

I decided to break it, I slammed it against the floor, instead of shattering, it got 'pulverized', it turned into a fine powder, the powdered mana crystal started floating, turned into pure light, and entered me through my eyes.

It was a bit painful looking directly at bright lights, especially when they forced themselves into your retina, but it had a good side, unlike the life crystal, I could feel my mana 'gauge' growing larger, it felt amazing.

I know what I'm gonna doing all night.

Later at sunrise...

Guide's POV

I am woken up by the sunlight, which shined through the cracks of my house's door.

I groggily get out of bed, then I put on my clothes, I've been sleeping naked, as I haven't had the opportunity to get my pajamas from my original house, but it's alright, these sheets are thick enough to warm me up at night.

I open the door and take a deep breath, the air here is pure, and it's a wonderfully sunny day.

I look around and find Magnolia, despite the happy atmosphere, she looks miserable.

She's laying on the floor, face in the dirt, banging a mana crystal on a rock for what seemed to be a significantly long time.

I walk to her to greet her "Good morning Maggs, you don't look so great, what happened?"

She stops banging the mana crystal and looks at me "Guide... Why... Why can't I break this mana crystal?" She bangs the mana crystal on the rock once more.

"Well, for one, I'm surprised, you must have gotten a lot of fallen stars, it's impressed you managed to do that in one night."

"Guide, the question."

"Right right, well, the reason you can't break any mana crystals, is because you already got the maximum amount of mana possible."

She looks at me with a bewildered face, as if I just said the world is going to end.

"N-No... It can't..." She says in a defeated tone, laying her head in the ground again.

"How much mana do you have right now Magnolia?"

"...260."

"Wait, take off your hat."

She takes it off "...200."

"That's a lot! If 20 mana is equivalent to one mana crystal, and one mana crystal is equivalent to 5 fallen stars, then you managed to get 45 fallen stars in a single night! It feels absurd to even think about it!"

She says nothing.

"Say, how many fallen stars do you have now?"

She looks down, presumably looking through her inventory "I have... 44..."

"You managed to get 89 fallen stars total!? In a single night?! Magnolia, that's incredible! How'd manage such a feat?"

"...It felt really good guide, I wanted to go all out, but it doesn't let me experience it anymore, it's right in front of me yet it won't let me break it, I even made an extra one to make sure the last one wasn't just malfunctioning or whatever, it wasn't."

"Well, since you made 2 extra mana crystals, why not give those to Ashley, she'll need the mana for summoning after all."

"...Yeah, sure." She says, finally getting up from the ground, wiping the dirt off her face and putting her hat back on.

While Terrarians cannot get tired, she definitely seemed like she was, I could swear she had bags under her eyes.

I entered the workshop with her, Ryan was still there, it seems he was sorting the already sorted chests, he looked at us, he seemed surprised by the current state of Magnolia.

"What happened to you?" He asked her.

"Mana crystals, where's Ashley? These crystal are making me sadder by the moment." Ryan got even more confused by Magnolia's choice of words.

Ryan looks at me "What does she mean?"

"Magnolia stayed up all night collecting fallen stars to make mana crystals, she got addicted to them, but was forced to stop since it's physically impossible to break a mana crystal if your have acquired the maximum mana amount."

"Right, but what does that have to do with Ashley?"

"She made 2 extra life crystals since she didn't know she couldn't break them, giving them to Ashley would be the best course of action."

"Well, uh, Ashley's in her house, probably talking with her flinxes."

"Thank you, what about Melwyn?"

"I'm honestly not sure where he is, he just left the workshop at one point and hasn't returned."

"Hmm, that is concerning, but I'm sure he'll return soon, come on Magnolia, let's get these mana crystals off of you."

She quietly followed me while I went to Ashley's house.

Out of everyone, Ashley's house is the fanciest looking, she's the only one who actually put up windows in her house, there are several flowers she took from the wilderness and put in front of the house, she even made curtains.

I knocked on the door, I heard Ashley hurriedly get to the door.

She opened the door to greet us, with two flinxes beside her "Oh! Good morning guide! I was wondering when you were gonna get up." She said, her flinxed also seemed to mumble a greeting, at least I hope it was.

"Good morning, we came to give you a little gift." I said gesturing to Magnolia, she took out her mana crystals, giving them to Ashley.

Ashley took them, putting them up against the sunlight "They're star shaped life crystals! They increase mana, right?"

Before I could say anything, Magnolia barged in while covering my mouth "Yes, but don't get fooled by their wondrous feels when broken, it's a trap to lure you into the void of emptiness!"

Ashley looked at Magnolia, blinking in confusion.

"What do you m-"

"IT'S TEMPORARY ASHLEY, IT WILL TEAR THE SWEET FRUIT OF PLEASURE THAT IS EXTENDING YOUR MANA FROM YOU RIGHT WHEN YOU SAVOUR THE MOST DELICIOUS DROP FROM IT'S F-" I cover her mouth while she rambles, she's still speaking as if she could be heard.

Gruff mumbling*

"I agree with you actually, Magnolia isn't good in the head right now." Ashley says to her flinx.

"Sorry about that, what she means is using the mana crystal will give you some temporary pleasure, but you'll only feel that upwards of 9 times since that's the maximum amount of mana crystals you can take." I say in hopes of making Magnolia quiet, she's still rambling.

"I- erm, okay?" Ashley bangs the two mana crystals together, they turn into powder, said powder starts floating in the air and turns into pure light, said light suddenly enter Ashley's eyes, which surprised her.

"AGH!" She yelps in surprise, falling to the floor.

Her flinxes quickly turn to her to check if she's alright, the gruff one starts mumbling to me in a condescending tone, I think he's threatening me.

"Wait, no! I'm alright! Don't do anything to him!"

Magnolia quieted down at this point, so I let her go "What do you think?" She asks Ashley.

"Uh, apart from hitting my head on the floor, it felt pretty good, nothing to die over though."

Magnolia looked flabbergasted.

"B-But it IS something to die over! Something must have happened!"

"The 'pleasure' might be different from person to person, besides, your obsession with magic might have made you think it's better than it actually was." I explained.

Magnolia simply looked at me, like I said the most absurd thing ever, she did not reply.

"Anyway, let's go back to the workshop, I have a few things planned for you two."

We entered the workshop, Melwyn had also arrived, and in time too, apparently, he was exploring the surrounding area, he didn't get much, after all it was just to 'map out' the area, but he did manage to find a boomerang, which gave me an idea.

"Melwyn, may I see that boomerang?"

"Sure." He gave me his boomerang, I inspected it, it's perfect.

"Magnolia- Wait, before that, Ashley, may you please make some curtains for the workshop?"

"Of course!" She made curtains for each and every window there was at lightning speeds, then quickly put them on the windows.

"Thank you Ashley, now, Magnolia, may you please give me a fallen star?"

"Uh, sure?" She handed a fallen star, I held it outward, allowing everyone to see it, then I promptly stabbed it with the boomerang.

Everyone looked surprised, and Melwyn looked like he was doubting me for the first time in his life.

That was until the star started to fuse with the boomerang, turning the boomerang blue with a red circle in the middle.

"This is an enchanted boomerang, it's pretty much just a better boomerang, though it does glow brightly."

I gave the enchanted boomerang to Melwyn.

"Wait! Why did you ask Ashley to make the curtains? What did that do?" Magnolia asked.

"Ah, I forgot to say, but fallen stars dissapear under sunlight, I didn't want to risk wasting a fallen star, without further ado, let me give out the missions, they're not quite as big as the ones I gave before."

I cleared my throat "First off, I ran out of rations, and I assume the other townfolk will run out soon too, so I'd like one of you to go fishing, it's a reliable way to get food, Melwyn, you already explored the wider vicinity, have you come across a big river in the process."

"Yes."

"Good, you just need to make a fishing rod and get some bait, you can make the fishing rod out of iron or something, doesn't really matter, the easiest most reliable bait I know are worms, you can easily find those under rocks."

Melwyn nodded and quickly made an iron fishing rod, he then left the workshop.

"Now, Ryan, where did you put the gems extracted from the extractinator?"

"In the second chest of the bottom row." He said while pointing to the aforementioned chest.

I walked over to chest and opened it, taking out a diamond, we were lucky to get one from extraction.

"Ooo, I didn't realize we got a diamond! How much is that worth?" Ashley said.

"You'd be disappointed at the price, but we're not gonna sell it, you see, gems have magic potential, and we can use them to make a few different magic tools and weapons."

Magnolia immediately left her somber state upon hearing "They do?! What can we make with them? Are diamonds the most powerful? Can I eat a diamond to get more mana!?"

"Hold on there, it's just one diamond, we can't do much with it, but you got one thing right, diamonds are the most powerful of gems." I said, Magnolia got slightly disappointed that the thing she got right was the power, seems she really wanted to eat the diamond.

"Alright, but if we can't do anything with one diamond, what do we do with it?" Ryan asked.

"I didn't say we couldn't do anything with one diamond, here, let me get something." I searched through the chests until I found one filled with plant related items, I took an acorn from it.

"This is an surprisingly simple process that only I know."

I took out the cap from the acorn, then, I put the acorn cap on top of the diamond and twisted it; The diamond transformed, morphing into the shape of an acorn nut, the cap turned grey with a stony texture.

"I call this, a gemcorn."

The Terrarians simply looked at it, blinking in astonishing for a few seconds.

"That won't make a diamond tree, will it?" Ryan asked, sounding a bit frustrated.

"What else would it do?" I replied.

He simply stared at it, like it was an absurdity that shouldn't exist.

I don't blame him, Terraria likes to make the most laughable of concepts a reality, at least this one is helpful.

"So do we just plant it?" Magnolia asked, she looks like she's suppressing the urge to snatch it out of my hands.

"Kind of, we need to plant it deep underground on stone, it can only grow below a certain level, but don't worry, caves are wider there, and the texture of the stone is different, it should be easy to identify when you reach it, let's call it the caverns layer."

"Alright, so all we have to do is go to that layer and plant this acorn?"

"You may explore the cave further if you wish, just remember to get back here before sunset, around 6 pm would be best." I say, throwing the acorn to Magnolia, who swiftly catches it.

The 3 Terrarians nodded, and left off to find the caverns.

I sat on my armchair, thinking of what to do next to pass the time.

My stomach growled, Melwyn better get back here quick, though from the nature of fishing, it might take a while.

Luckily, Melwyn busted through the door, looks like he managed to catch a fish quite quickly.

"Ah, hello Melwyn, I was wondering when you were gonna get here, you managed to catch a fish, yes?"

"Multiple."

"How lucky! How many?"

"38 salmon, 56 bass and an iron crate."

...

"Are you... Sure?"

"Yes, why?"

"It sounds a little farfetched, can you show me the fi-" Before I could finish what I said, Melwyn was already dumping a metric ton of salmon on the ground.

"Ok! You can stop now! I believe you!"

He stopped, then recollected the fish he dropped.

"Whew, that'll be food for weeks, better get used to eating fish, anyway, did you open that crate?"

"Yes, its items were unexpected, but useful, there were a few bars of silver, some healing potions and a blue potion-"

"Mana potion, restores mana."

"Some weird purple stuff-"

"Journeyman bait, can attract fish pretty well."

"And most of all, boots, are these the kind that make me go fast?"

"Yes! Sailfish boots! They can grant you great speed, now the only one who doesn't have boots is Magnolia, but I'm sure she'll get hers soon." I said, Melwyn nodded, quickly equipping the boots.

"Good, but what about the fish?"

"We'll prepare them for consumption of course, here, grab some iron, let's make a cauldron."

Melwyn grabbed some iron, and I instructed him in how to make the cauldron.

We put the cauldron a bit further from the other workstations, perhaps we'll need to make a kitchen later.

Melwyn also made a bucket to get water for the cauldron, he went to the nearest clean water source, while he did that, I went outside to get some wild plants that are good for seasoning.

Melwyn made a table and thoroughly cleaned it for use with food, I put a bass there and told Melwyn to make me a cooking knife, he made one in a span of seconds, it was the best damn knife I ever used.

I cut up the bass, removing the organs and making the best effort I could to remove the fish bones, when it was done I cleaned the fish in the best way I could and put it in the cauldron and lit the firewood below.

Melwyn attentively watched me butcher the fish and throw it into the cauldron, he then joined me in bass gutting, we got a few more fish in the cauldron, it got to a point where I wouldn't be able to eat all that fish.

Then I remembered the townsfolk, I could make them a little treat, a brunch, it'd make them feel a little more at ease knowing food isn't a problem here.

So I told Melwyn to make and put a picnic table outside, I prepared some more fish, but felt it was a little underwhelming having only cooked fish, so I decided to use the salmon to make sashimi, a dish served raw, but one served fresh, it'll be exotic, it'll be perfect.

So when Melwyn came back from making the picnic table, I told him to put a salmon on the table, I then demonstrated how to make sashimi.

"And done! Now you have a plate of sashimi to serve, wait, we don't have plates, we'll just make some, it's simple anyway."

"Alright, but what about the sashimi? Do I just store it?"

"Erm, I think it would be best if we made them at feeding, to maximize freshness, you can just eat this one if you want."

"Are you sure?"

"We have a lot of salmon and could just go fish for more, go ahead."

He hesitantly ate the sashimi, I'll admit I was just curious as to what would happen if a Terrarian ate food, realistically, nothing special would happen, but perhaps something more would, there have been surprises regarding then.

Melwyn finished eating the sashimi, he never showed if he enjoyed it or not, having only the near-emontionless face he'd always had.

"So, how do you feel?"

"I feel... Satisfied, it's weird."

"Weird how?"

"Well, when I went to drink water, I felt nothing, since I wasn't thirsty, but here, despite not being hungry, I feel satisfied as if finally eating something after not having eaten for hours."

"Hm, do you feel stronger per say?"

"I feel vitalized if that makes sense."

"Perhaps your body is making use of the energy from the food."

"How so?"

"Well, while your Terrarian body might not need it, the sashimi you ate still had energy to give you, so your body is making use of that energy as an extra boost."

"That sounds useful."

"It does, let's just go make the plates now."

I told him to go find clay, he went to a nearby lake and managed to find clay at the bottom, which he collected plenty of and came back.

We made a few ceramic plates, by that point, the cooked fish was ready, so we put them on the plates and then the picnic table outside.

I called in the townsfolk, they were curious as to why I called them, some even panicked, but were quickly calmed and delighted to see actual cooked fresh food to eat instead of the dry rations they're used to.

We sat on the table and they began chowing down on the cooked bass, despite the incredulous amount of cooked fish on the table, we were already beginning to run out of cooked fish, so I told Melwyn to prepare the sashimi.

The townfolk were delighted to try the exotic food, only the golfer had eaten sashimi before, and the nurse never had the chance to try due to her busy life.

It's also a bit surprising too, despite the nurse's high income and fame, she enjoyed the nature and crudeness of this place more than her own house.

Mostly because her house was the hospital she worked at, the only moment of rest she ever experienced in her day to day life was either sleeping, eating, or traveling to other hospitals, she never even had vacation, as she was somehow an exception.

This 'middle-of-nowhere country house', as she called it, was the vacation she so desperately wanted, she ranted about it for a while.

As for the golfer, he enjoyed it simply because it reminded him of his adventuring days.

Even after we finished eating, we talked for a few hours before moving on to do something else, it's weird to think that me running out of food snowballed into me fortifying my relationship with the townsfolk.

After that, I rested in my armchair, full from the meal and tired after so much talking, I slept for a bit.

I had a dream, dreams normally don't mean much, to some special folks, they might mean something, tell them something, make them see the future or maybe the location of a treasure.

I never had any dreams like that, but now that I'm tied into all of this, I'll start having dreams that finally have meaning.

I hoped this dream didn't have any meaning.

It was actually a nightmare, a very simple one, but very vivid.

It was of me burning alive, burning alive and drowning, I felt my skin melt off my body, I felt like my throat was filled with burning liquid, and I could see my hands melt into nothing but bones.

This pain shouldn't have been possible, while I knew it was just a nightmare, that the impossible doesn't matter, if I was receiving predictions through dreams, I am to treat it as reality.

Death through burning shouldn't be this painful, while it is initially excruciatingly painful, it starts to dissipate, since your nerves burn out, and yet, this pain was prolonged, the only explanation is magic, magic utilised to torture someone, torture me.

I woke up in cold sweat, breathing heavily, the first thing I saw was the four Terrarians, Melwyn, Ryan, Magnolia and Ashley, they all looked concerned.

Magnolia was closest to me, she looks like she was going to try to wake me up, wish she did that sooner.

"Guide... Are you okay?" Magnolia asked.

I could only look at her, I was still trying to process the nightmare.

They looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

I closed my eyes, focused on normalizing my breathing, it was working, I was slowly calming down, processing the information, something I'd never thought I'd have to do again.

When I calmed down and my breathing normalized, Magnolia asked if I was alright again.

"Don't worry, I'm fine, just had a... rough nightmare, harmless, I assure you."

They looked hesitant, but trusted my words, there was a long awkward pause after that.

Wanting to get my mind off the dream, I spoke to them "So, I take you're back from the cave, did you plant the gemcorn, Magnolia?"

"Ah, yes I did, made sure there was enough space and all."

"Alright, so, what else did you three get from that cave?"

They seemed surprised that I changed demeanor so quickly, I do not blame them.

"I... found a sort of underground camp, there were skeletons gathered around a scorched spot that I assume was a campfire, they took notice of me and immediately ran at me with murderous intent, I managed to defeat them, they themselves did not have any loot, but the camp did, there was a mostly empty crate that had depth meters and compasses, luckily there were enough for each of us, including Melwyn." Ryan said as he threw a compass and a depth meter to Melwyn.

"I see, they are very useful tools, especially in regards to positioning yourself, Magnolia?"

"Found some speed boots, a cloud in a bottle, and magic mirror." She says, showing off her new loot.

"Hermes boots, that should mean everyone has 'speed boots' now, the other items are also great news, Ashley?"

"I found this band of regeneration, and a magic mirror too! I didn't find anything else despite the spelunker potion though... But I did find life crystals!" She says pulling out a life crystal.

"Oh right! I also found some!" Magnolia said, pulling out a life crystal of her own, Ryan also pulled out a life crystal, indicating he had found some too.

"How many did you all get?" I ask them.

"6." Ashley said.

"5." Ryan said.

"3." Magnolia said.

"That means 14 in total, 3 for each one, with 2 more for Melwyn."

They distributed the life crystal among themselves, and used them.

"You should have 200 health each, with Melwyn having 320."

"Damn! 300 already?" Magnolia exclaimed.

"And just 4 more life crystals and he reaches 400, isn't that exciting?" I said, patting Melwyn on the back.

"It makes me want to go back to the cave to get more! Can I go do that?" Magnolia said.

"Hold on there, you just came back, let's store the lesser loot on chests and..." I stopped, I felt something, something weird.

The Terrarians were confused on why I stopped talking, but quickly picked on the feeling as well.

It was the feeling of being watched by an evil presence.

The Terrarians were confused, looking around in paranoia, but I knew what was going to happen.

I quickly moved to the chest area, opening a chest filled with potions.

"Ryan, take this archery potion, Melwyn, drink this swiftness potion, crap... There aren't enough buff potions."

"Guide, what's happening-" Ryan was cut off.

"Melwyn! Quickly! Make sashimi!"

"What?"

"For the energy boost damnit!"

Melwyn obliged and quickly made four plates of sashimi.

"Now, eat!"

"Guide, why are you-"

"NO TIME THERE'S A BIG MONSTER COMING HERE AND IF WE'RE NOT PREPARED IT'S GONNA KILL US!"

The Terrarians got the memo and ate the plates of sashimi, they were confused on why they were eating until the boost from the food kicked in.

"Now drink the potions and go to the arena! Prepare for battle!"

They ran to arena as fast as they could, drinking their potions while they ran.

I ran with them to the edge of the arena, to observe and give out advice when fighting.

They got into position, awaiting nervously for the threat that was to come.

Suddenly, a muffled but loud roar was heard from the moon's direction, and from the horizon, a large spherical object flew to the arena.

Despite being illuminated by only moonlight, everyone could clearly what it was.

A giant disembodied eyeball.

The giant eye looked at the Terrarians, and the Terrarians were stunned by its horrid and unexpected appearance.

The eye locked onto Ashley before dashing at her, she dodged at the last second by hooking herself out of the way.

While the eye dashed, Melwyn slashed his starfury at it, doing some damage and diverting its attention to Melwyn.

Ryan and Magnolia soon realized it was time to attack, so they shot as many projectiles as they could at it.

The eye chased Melwyn while he ran and cast stars upon the eye, it seemed more curious than anything, not taking any of them seriously.

Ashley was reluctant to attack it, she was scared it would suddenly dash at her again, and her minions couldn't reach it, they themselves were shivering in fear despite their invincibility.

The eye dashed downwards at Melwyn again, he managed to dodge with a boost of his sandstorm bottle, while simultaneously swinging his sword repeatedly trying to cast more stars upon it.

The eye went through the upper layer of the arena, it quickly turned to Melwyn before dashing at him, but missing him entirely.

Due to it dashing upwards, it now faced the sky, Melwyn cast another star, hitting it directly in the iris.

This affected it immensely, it let out a muffled scream, its iris had a star shaped hole in it, it erratically turned to Melwyn.

It then started spinning, exponentially getting faster, it then let out a roar, this time clear, while bits of fleshy eye chunks flew from its body.

It stopped spinning, revealing a giant spike toothed maw.

This sudden transformation made Ryan and Magnolia stop shooting in shock, the eye locked onto Melwyn, and started dashing erratically at him, much faster than before.

Melwyn dodged at the last second before running as fast as he could, still trying to land a star projectile at it.

Ryan and Magnolia started shooting again, but with much less success as it was now harder to predict its movement.

Ashley got the occasional whip strike, and her minions mustered up the courage to attack it, jumping at it when possible.

Despite its speedy boost, the eye still could not catch up to Melwyn, however, Melwyn was so focused on hitting the eye whilst running, that he didn't notice that he was nearing the edge of the arena.

I tried warning him, but it was too late, he fell from the platform, and was directly in front of the eye, who was in perfect position to devour him in a single dash.

But that would only be if Melwyn was merely human, fortunately, he's a Terrarian.

With his insane reflexes, he hit his sandstorm in a bottle, propelling him back up to the platform faster than the eye could move.

However, he hit the bottle with so much force, that it used its maximum thrust power, making Melwyn go way higher than he needed to be.

This gave the eye a window of opportunity.

It dashed at Melwyn, who had no way dodging the attack, and bit onto his thigh, piercing his armor with ease, and dragging him up into sky.

Every one of us screamed his name, helpless to do anything as we watched him go so far into the sky that that our weapons couldn't reach him.

At one point, the eye threw Melwyn upwards, to devour Melwyn whole.

But in the small window of time that Melwyn was free, he switched his starfury out for the cactus sword, and threw it right into the eye's maw.

It recoiled in pain, and through what seemed like sheer luck, Melwyn managed to grab onto the eye by holding onto one of its teeth.

It shook around erratically, trying to get the cactus sword out of its 'throat' more so than shaking Melwyn off, but it was still making it hard for Melwyn to hold on.

So he took out his starfury and stabbed it deep into the eye, then he twisted the sword, giving him a stronger hold on the eye.

The eye thrashed around some more, before it finally managed to regurgitate the cactus sword, which is now nearly devoid of its needles.

It then shifted its focus onto Melwyn, it spun around rapidly, before suddenly stopping, this action caused Melwyn's body to swing onto its mouth, which was wide open to consume Melwyn whole.

Somehow, Melwyn managed to hold himself between the eye's jaws, the eye tried closing its mouth, but Melwyn was somehow strong enough to resist it.

The eye erratically dashed around, descending from the sky and nearing the ground, the other Terrarians tried approaching the eye to help Melwyn, but felt it was too dangerous to approach, and it moved too fast to consistently hit.

Suddenly, the eye seemed to realize it was nearing the ground, and decided to bash itself into the ground to force Melwyn into its maw.

It started dashing towards the ground in a zigzag pattern, no one could approach it in time to do anything, everyone looked horrified, as if Melwyn's demise was inevitable at that point.

But suddenly, Magnolia heard something only she would ever notice in such commotion, I could tell by her face.

She heard a falling star.

Looking up, I saw a bright star falling above the arena, flying faster than a bullet.

And as if the stars aligned, it collided with the eye, piercing straight through it and causing the eye to explode into several chunks of flesh.

Melwyn fell to the ground, but Ashley quickly ran to where he would fall, propulsed herself with her hook and grabbed him midair, she then quickly hit her snowstorm bottle to safely slow down the fall, they both hit the ground, much less hard than if she didn't help.

Ashley quickly got up and didn't even bother inspecting Melwyn, she just lifted him over her shoulder and tried running to the nurse.

This time, both Ryan and Magnolia ran to aid Melwyn, helping Ashley carry him to the nurse.

I followed them to the nurse's house, Ashley frantically knocked on her door, impatiently waiting for the nurse to answer.

The door swinged open, the nurse rubbing her eyes in tiredness "What the hell do you want it's like 12 pm right n-" she then noticed an unconscious deeply hurt Melwyn being carried by the 3 other Terrarians.

"...Alright just, get in, put him in my bed."

Ryan lit up a torch to light up the room while Ashley removed Melwyn's armor and Magnolia gave the nurse a healing potion to treat Melwyn.

The nurse started inspecting his wounds "Multiple minor fractions throughout his body... His left thigh has 5 holes that I can literally see through- What the hell did you guys fight!?"

"The eye of Cthulhu." I answered.

The nurse looked at me in disappointment "Of course you weirdos would be ones to actually fight this thing, looks like I was right, you guys are pretty important."

"What does she mean?" Ashley asked me.

"She means that it was a monster that no one could defeat, not because it was extraordinarily powerful, but because it only attacked the weak, and fled when the strong came."

"Strong how?"

"Well, it only ravaged poor villages without adventurers, or at least adventurers that aren't a threat to it, when any meaningfully powerful adventurer came, it fled."

"Then why did it attack us?"

"It noticed our presence and deemed us a threat to the Moon Lord, thus, it attacked us."

"Wait, why would that thing consider you guys a threat, you're only slightly weaker than mid-level adventurers!" The nurse questioned.

"Oh yeah, I never told you, but Terraria made these 4 to stop the Moon Lord's cult." I said.

She looked at the Terrarians in shock "THESE four?! They were directly made by the goddess?! Dear goddess I thought you just used some trick to attract it or something!" She looked back at Melwyn, who already had all his wounds treated and had wooden splints to keep him from moving too much.

The nurse just sighed "Look, can you guys just moves him to his bed? I still wanna sleep."

Ashley and Ryan carefully moved Melwyn to his own bed, with Magnolia helping get anything out of the way.

They laid him in his bed, Ashley put her band of regeneration on Melwyn to help him heal, and decided to watch him over.

Ryan and Magnolia were unsure on what to do, so I decided to suggest something.

"Want to look at what the eye left behind?"

They looked at me in surprise "For real?" Magnolia asked.

"Yeah, come on." I said while heading back to the arena.

They followed me there, and I told them to collect whats left of the eye, they obliged.

They collected every chunk of the eye, and then went back to me to know what to do with them.

I instructed them to take one out "Alright, so first, clean off the blood from the side here." I instructed, they followed.

After wiping some blood off the cut part of the eye chunk, it was revealed that the eye of Cthulhu had bones, or well, something that looked like bones.

It was actually demonite, I explained to them that it is a powerful ore above even gold, one that can make powerful weapons, but with its potential locked away.

They quickly separated the demonite from the eye chunks, but I told to not throw the chunks away, for I still had a use for them, an idea.

We went to the workshop "Ok, so first, turn the demonite ore into bars, then we'll make weapons from that."

Ryan made some ingots, so I instructed him on how to make a demonite bow, he was impressed at its power.

Magnolia got very disappointed once she learned that we didn't have a way of making a magic weapon, but I know how to cheer her up.

I told them to take out the eye chunks and the eye's teeth, then I instructed them on how to make a shield resembling the eye's maw.

At first Magnolia just thought it looked cool, but when I put it on and dashed just like the eye, she was delighted, starry-eyed once more.

They made four shields, one for each one of them, I said that was all and made my way to my house.

I went over to my bed, and collapsed onto it, tired from the long day I just had.

---

Writer's notes

This took like 4 months didn't it? Lmao, at least I made this one like, 50% longer or something, that makes up for it right? Anyway, that last line actually represents something, it represents me wanting to go to sleep, since I am currently finishing this at midnight and really want to go to sleep, anyway, goodnight, I'll be sleeping for the foreseeable future, this dog will make the next chapter while I sleep, goodnight.

Fun fact(s):

You might have noticed the royal gel looks nothing like it does in-game, that is because I thought its design made no goshdarn sense, so I changed it.

The pocket watch change, it was because I thought 40 gold just to make the characters know what time it is was too much, and also considering how big a bar of gold is compared to the watch, it would definitely cost less.

I made the floating islands visible from the ground because they aren't in 2D anymore, they can simply look up, also I feel like the islands would be harder to find in a 3D space.

For the grappling hook, I made it craftable because making it drop from a random skeleton or piranha made little sense to me, also realistically they could just craft one (I needed them to get the grappling hook at that specific time too)

The entire carriage thing was because I noticed a huge technology gap when comparing NPCs, so I expanded on that.

As for the entire Trapston thing, it was all world building, terraria never shows any towns besides the ones you make, but it's implied they exist, it's also my explanation for how they get so much money after a boss fight.