Firstly: Happy New Year to everyone!
Apologies for the delay in releasing this chapter; the end of the year, as always, has been a complete and utter disaster, a chaotic mess.
I'm sorry for that; things should normalize now.
Oh, by the way, I now have a (P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori - It has 3 chapters of SITO (Devas' story) ahead and 1 chapter of FTHD (Hunter story) for just 2 dollars.
I might release another tier in the future, but for now, it's just this one.
Well, I've rambled on for quite a bit. Again, a Happy New Year, happy reading, and good night!
[...]---[...]
POV: Devas Asura.
The first thing I did after leaving the dungeon wasn't to check the rewards, but to set up my improvised shower and take a hot bath.
Being covered in gel was unpleasant, to say the least. It wasn't anything fancy; I just pulled out a portable shower from my inventory and quickly washed myself.
I also took care not to get the Slime Staff wet, which I had left resting on a table I pulled out of the VoidBag.
I ran some tests while at it, putting the Slime Staff in the inventory. I thought I wouldn't be able to, considering, well, there was a living being inside it, but it went into the inventory easily.
After that, I pulled it back out, for two main reasons.
The first being that Millia asked me to hold her, and I would do that until she decided to come out from there.
The second being that I didn't know if the Slime Staff and Millia herself would behave like ShadowFlame in the inventory, unaffected and able to move.
It would be scary for her if she woke up out of nowhere and came out of the Slime Staff only to realize that everything around was vast darkness with various random items everywhere.
It was fortunate that the VoidBag organized itself; otherwise, I didn't want to know the mess my inventory would be at this point...
After drying off and changing, I pulled a chair out of the inventory and sat down. I didn't even need to look at the phone to figure out it was at least ten o'clock at night.
"Well... Let's see these rewards..." I murmured, pulling up the stream rewards screen to my view.
-//-
[Congratulations!! You completed the dungeon 100%!]
[Calculating rewards!]
[Rewards calculated!]
Rewards: Healing Potion (Lesser - 10), Healing Potion (Normal - 3), Mana Potion (Lesser - 5), Umbrella (1), Solidifier (1), 500000 SP.
Completion Reward (100%): Queen Alice's Suspended Garden Key.
[..]
[Genocidal Ending: Kill "Mil'li'a-io Kr'yo 'Li'ja Jou-sk"]
~ I won't spare anyone... ~
Reward: Life Crystal (5), Mana Crystal (5), Slime Staff (Broken)
(FAILURE!)
[..]
[Pacifist Ending: Spare "Mil'li'a-io Kr'yo 'Li'ja Jou-sk"]
~ I'm not a monster! ~
Reward: Prismatic Seal Key, Slime Staff (Intact)
(COMPLETED!)
-//-
That was a lot of rewards, and good ones at that.
I scratched my chin just before lying down on the chair.
First of all, the SP. It's always good to receive them, especially in large quantities.
[Current SP: 6,922,726]
Almost seven million SP. It was enough to upgrade the VoidBag and the Minimap once each, which was good, but I'll do that later.
Secondly, the potions, which were basically extra lives, especially this new potion: Healing Potion (Normal).
I didn't even need to use Analyze: Item on it to find out that it was at least three times stronger than its lesser version. Just the color and the smell were already an indication; just opening the potion cap, I could feel the vitality that existed inside it.
As for the mana potions, they were basically liquid mana stones, which was good, considering the quantity; just these five mana potions were enough for me to buy a few mansions in the kingdom.
Of course, that's if I were to sell them, which I wouldn't.
As for the last two items in the "normal" reward, the Solidifier and the Umbrella... They weren't the rewards I expected, but I can't say they weren't useful.
-//-
[Umbrella (Color: Red and white)]
Type: Tool/Weapon Prefix: None
Damage: 23 Knockback: 5 (Average) Durability: 550/550 Rarity: Blue
Ability (1): When held, allows the user the slow fall effect, making them float slowly to the ground.
Ability (2): Impermeable to all types of liquid. (Note: Can still be damaged if the liquid is dangerous)
[..]
Description: A normal umbrella enchanted with Runes and Mystic Symbols that granted it the ability of flotation and impermeability.
~ Mary Poppins? Who's that? Never heard of her... ~
-//-
As a weapon, the umbrella was decent, almost stronger than an iron sword with a rune, which was impressive to some extent.
But the main feature was clearly the flotation ability. I didn't see myself using it often, but an extra tool was always welcome, especially one with Runes on the handle that I would definitely study later.
As for the Solidifier, it was, well... A giant washing machine, that's the best physical description I could give it.
What it did was basically turn all the gel I put into it into a mass of gel that solidified within a few minutes after leaving the Solidifier.
I would have found this reward somewhat useless if the solid gel it produced wasn't absurdly resistant and durable. It was like a super rubber.
"I'll need to change the Humvee's tires, won't I?" I murmured as I watched the Solidifier work.
It would be foolish not to replace the Humvee's tires with tires made of gel, especially the gel from Giant Slimes, which produced an even more resistant solid gel.
In fact, I was tempted to even create a complete armor made of this gel... I just needed to get a mold, both for the Humvee tire and for my armor.
As for the 100% completion reward for the dungeon: The garden key.
Basically, it was this key that would allow me to enter that mansion a second time, as the stream had deactivated the defenses the first time.
It was excellent, as I wanted to study the runes of that house, but it would be even better if I could put the house and the island in the inventory, then I would have a portable fortress, which, unfortunately, was still not possible.
As much as the space inside the VoidBag was immense, the "door," the "entrance" to the VoidBag, so to speak, was the limit that existed around me, which currently was thirty meters in all directions.
Much smaller than the island, for now, since I would upgrade the inventory more times; it was just a matter of time in this case.
Finally, the reward for the "Extra Mission," where I could choose to kill or spare Millia.
As tempting as life and mana crystals might be, even if I knew about them, I would still have chosen to spare her.
As for the prismatic seal key, well, I didn't know where this seal was, but I knew what it guarded inside; it only took an Analyze: Item to find out that it was the Queen Slime.
After acquiring this information, I literally threw the key into the VoidBag and accepted that I wouldn't touch that key for a long time.
With the rewards list finished, I thought about calling Dylan or Geralt, but at this point, I was sure they were sleeping.
I spent the next few hours upgrading the Humvee, mainly the interior and swapping the wheels for solid gel wheels. I left the engine to finish tomorrow since without Stark's help, it was impossible for me to finish that part.
Modifying the oil engine to an electric one was... complicated, if it weren't for the parts that Stark was sending, which he created himself at Marvel, the time needed to finish would triple.
I went to sleep after a few more hours of work, around three in the morning.
Even though I wasn't physically tired, thanks to the Heart Valve generating vitality in exchange for mana, mentally was another story.
I pulled a tent from the inventory and settled inside it just before turning off the stream, wishing everyone a good night, and went to sleep.
I set my alarm for six in the morning and lay down. It didn't take me long to fall asleep, getting a short but good dreamless night's sleep...
[...]
The next morning started calmly, with me having my breakfast while chatting with the (CHAT).
It was particularly early, so the (CHAT) was somewhat empty with only about a thousand people.
[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Think you can finish everything today? The engine only needs a few things, and the Symbols and Runes part? (Iron Man yawning emote).
[(MOD)Jarvis]: Mr. Stark, Devas, I've finished cataloging all the movies, anime, games, and books I could find on the internet. Should I list the most important ones? (Emote of a robot butler with a book in hand).
[TohsakaHeiress]: I really hate mornings... (Chibi Rin emote having coffee half asleep).
[(MOD)RedHuntressLive]: Devas! My dad sent Zwei to our dorm! Our little dog! (Little Red Riding Hood emote shaking a black and white dog).
[YellowHuntressLive]: The coolest thing about all this is seeing Blake feel threatened by a 10-kilo dog. I've never laughed so much in my life. She even hissed! (Yellow bear emote laughing).
[BlakeHuntressLive]: I've already said I didn't hiss! And I definitely didn't feel threatened, I just prefer cats to dogs! (Black cat emote patting a dog on the face).
[AdvocateOfGenderEquality]: Hey, a question here. If you come to my world and become an adventurer, would your skills stay with you when you return to Terraria? (Generic guy emote with a "?" on his head).
"If all goes well, the Humvee will be ready by the end of today, and I'll let everyone know that we'll leave tomorrow morning for the mission," I commented, responding to Stark's comment.
"As for the movies, no need to list anything for now, Jarvis, and thank you for the help." I thanked the A.I. just before taking a sip of coffee.
Even though Marvel was still in two thousand and nine and didn't have various works from my world, still, it was good to have a library just in case it was necessary.
With Jarvis cataloging everything, even if I came across a mission I didn't have information on, I could just ask him and see if he had something about that specific world in his database.
"Uhm? Ruby has a dog? I'm glad you have your dog with you, Ruby," I commented.
I had a dog before that ended up dying of old age, so I know how much they are missed when they are away.
Robyn has a pet store, doesn't she? I don't think I have time for a pet right now, but I'm not against buying a fish or something like that.
I can even leave it with someone, Dylan, Gilbert, or even Robyn herself when I go on a mission. I'll talk to her about it later.
"As for your question, Kazuma, I have no idea." And why the hell was he asking that? Did he want to leave Konosuba and come to Terraria if I went there?
"If I were to guess, it would lean more towards yes than no, but I can't be sure." I didn't even remember how Kazuma's world skills worked, just that there was a Guild and a skill card.
Frankly, I was too busy laughing while watching to pay attention to anything else.
A few minutes later, when I had started working on the Humvee engine with Stark guiding me, my EcoMirror rang, two touches later, the guide's voice echoed through the clearing.
"Good morning, Devas, are you busy?" He asked me.
"Working on the Humvee, why? Did something happen?" I asked while wiping sweat from my forehead. "Do I need to rush over?"
"No, no, just wanted to let you know that I found a new member for our team." Dylan's voice answered me moments later. "It's someone... a acquaintance of mine, so to speak. I wanted to introduce you to her. Can I come over then? Are you in that same clearing?"
Uhm? A new member for the group? Even though I had said it was okay to call a few more people, I didn't think this would happen.
"You can come if you want, I'm in the same clearing as before." I commented. "If possible, bring Gilbert and Robyn with you, then we can talk about the mission." It was good to make some plans before leaving.
"Great! I'll stop by the old man's mansion then, see you in about an hour or so." Dylan said in an excited way just before hanging up the EcoMirror.
Shrugging, I went back to working on the Humvee engine, while listening to "Mirror Mirror," which Ruby had put on, saying that Weiss composed and sang the song.
It was a good song, and a beautiful voice too, even if the lyrics were a bit... Lonely, no matter how euphemistic that might sound.
Still, it was a song I would put in my playlist.
The next hour was calm, with the stream's songs changing every four to five minutes. After about an hour and a half, a "PING!" occurred on the stream, coming from the Minimap.
I didn't waste time and pulled the Minimap in front of me. There were four points, three green and one yellow, Dylan, Gilbert, Robyn, and the acquaintance Dylan had said would be part of the team.
I just hoped it wasn't someone unpleasant, if not, known or not to Dylan, I would kick the person away.
Before they arrived, I stored the Humvee in the inventory, even though there was still some work on the engine, it was something I could do later.
After a few minutes, the first to arrive in the clearing was Gilbert.
"Hey, Devas! Good morning." Gilbert exclaimed, being the first to appear.
"Morning." I replied back shortening the greeting as I turned around. "You ran ahead just to tease Dylan, didn't you?" I asked.
Gilbert didn't even bother to answer, just chuckled lightly and nodded.
I was sure he would hold that over the guide's head for some time, saying that he, an old man, had walked faster than the young ones.
After about five minutes, the other three arrived at the clearing.
Dylan was the same as always, the only difference being that he was wearing a light leather armor with some metal parts.
Robyn was wearing a green jacket, with a red T-shirt and jeans. How she kept both tails swinging was a mystery.
Interestingly, she had two animals with her, a white fox that was being carried in her arms, and a white owl, which was on her right shoulder.
Finally, the last member of the group and the person who was the yellow point.
She was a woman about five feet seven inches tall. She had dark brown hair that reached shoulder length, partially hidden by the black top hat with glasses she wore on her head.
She had light blue eyes that looked at me with curiosity. Her face was slender, with a small nose and small lips. She was beautiful.
As for her clothes, she wore some of the strangest clothes I had seen in Terraria. Strange not because they were weird, but because they didn't seem to be from the time of Terraria.
She wore a green coat over a brown blouse that accentuated her breasts, lifting them up. At the waist, she had a utility belt with several small pouches, and she wore a white skirt that reached only halfway down her thighs.
Finally, on her feet, she wore a pair of long brown boots that reached up to her shins.
She basically looked like an adventurer straight out of a storybook; if she had a Zeppelin, I wouldn't be surprised.
Interestingly, I recognized her, in the same way I recognized Dylan, Charlotte, and Robyn.
She was one of the NPCs from Terraria, or rather, the Steampunker.
As she approached, the first thing that happened was something that amused me; Robyn's fox jumped from her lap and came running in my direction, starting to rub its face on my leg.
If looks could kill, I would have exploded with the intensity Robyn was staring at me.
"What? I didn't do anything," I commented with a slight smile as I crouched down and rubbed the fox's ear.
I knew the reason why she was acting like this; it was the Sun Breathing. I just didn't think it would be effective to this extent, especially after Robyn's reaction, or rather, the lack of reaction from Robyn, who theoretically was a fox woman.
"Good morning, Devas," Dylan greeted me after approaching.
"Good morning," I replied at the same time I handed the little fox to Robyn, who looked at the fox as if it had betrayed her.
"So, you're the leader of my 'cousin's' group." The Steampunker's voice echoed, coming from Robyn's side.
"Dylan said you're a Bronze rank." She asked, pulling the glasses from her top hat down and putting them on while looking at me for a few seconds before sighing and taking them off.
"The person who promoted you, was she retarded by any chance?" She asked seriously.
"Why? Do you think I'm too weak?" I asked calmly. I could see from the corner of my eye that Gilbert had a amused smile on his face.
"Oh, yeah. If you're weak, what am I then? An ant?" She asked exasperatedly while turning and lifting her butt.
"My beautiful butt may be as big as an ant's, but I'm not one. You're a Bronze rank, but you're not one!" She exclaimed before turning around and looking at Dylan, who seemed more tired than really surprised by the Steampunker's actions.
Was she always like this?
"What the hell is this? Is he some kind of secret weapon from Aunt Helena?" She asked, holding the tip of her nose. "Bronze rank my beautiful butt..." She muttered.
"Is she always like this?" I asked the guide.
"Like what? Kind of vulgar and straightforward?" He asked. "If that's the question, yes, she's always like that..." He sighed.
"Fascinating," I commented. Everyone Dylan knew was... peculiar?
At least she was funny and seemed like someone fun to be around. Much better than a random arrogant noble.
[...]
POV: Selina Steamhord.
Bronze rank... Who was the Guild idiot who handled this guy?! Damn, was he blind? I won't deny that his mana hardly leaked, following his body like a stream, but still, damn!
I might not be able to sense mana and need to use my glasses to see it, but still, how did no one discover this guy before? Aunt Helena didn't mention anything about him, neither did Charlotte; both could sense mana! Is this some kind of prank? It must be!
"So, let's start the meeting? If we can call it that, I guess..." I heard the gem contractor start talking.
"First of all. Selina, nice to meet you. I'm Devas." He introduced himself to me. "I presume the others have already introduced themselves, so I'll skip that part." He chirped before continuing.
"First, what's your specialization? A summary; we can talk more about it later." He asked, then fell silent, waiting for my answer.
I thought for a moment before responding.
"I'm not as good at Mystical Symbols as my 'Cousin' over there." I said, pointing to Dylan. "But I know how to use them well. As for my specialization, it would be in machinery construction." I said, pulling the sleeve of my jacket back, revealing my exoskeleton.
"I'm skilled in combat as well, both unarmed and armed. I can fight both at close range and medium range." I said, showing the small darts attached to the exoskeleton.
"I also know a bit of medicine and magic, but to a lesser extent." I finished the explanation while covering the exoskeleton again.
"Alright..." Devas commented briefly. "An excellent range of skills, and since Dylan invited you, I can believe you know what's going on?" He asked. I nodded in agreement, prompting him to continue.
"Alright, as I said, we can talk about ourselves later; for now... Dylan, do you have the route to WinterHord?" He asked, making a table and five chairs appear out of nowhere.
A Travel Space, probably, but how did he do that? Spatial magic without a focus or Mystical Symbols? How?! He even put some snacks on the table!
"Yes. We'll use the same route the old man was going to use." Dylan said, pulling out a map of the continent from the Travel Space he had on his ring.
Curious, it was the first time I saw Dylan interact with someone other than me or Melissa.
"Gilbert had said it would take a week, maybe two, to get there." Devas commented before asking. "It goes through where?"
"Through the Northeast side of the kingdom, near the coast." Dylan pointed to the map and traced the route. "It follows close to the coast until it reaches the mountain range where WinterHord is." He explained briefly before continuing.
"As the old man said, it would take about a week and a half to get there with few breaks and two, maybe three, with occasional stops in villages near the coast." Gilbert is a merchant then? I needed to ask later.
"We'll go on the Humvee with no stops; that would shorten the time." Devas sang, affirming. What the hell was a "Humvee"?
"If we go on the Humvee, yes, it would shorten." Dylan nodded in agreement. "I would guess about three days, maybe four if we stop somewhere."
Before I could ask what a Humvee was, Devas looked down, specifically at his waist, where he had a wooden staff hanging that had started to glow.
Moments after the staff started to glow, a small green slime appeared on the table between the group.
I looked at the slime with a strange face, and I could see that I wasn't the only one, as practically everyone at the table had a confused lo…
…Everyone, except Devas.
"Did you wake up, Millia, sleep well?" Devas asked, looking at the small slime. Who the hell was Millia?
To everyone's surprise at the table, except for our leader, the little slime nodded, as if agreeing, before morphing the upper part of its body into words, a script that took me a while to realize was an ancient and dead version of the Terrarian language.
"Slept more or less, still feeling... off, but I'm better, thank you for taking care of me during this time." I heard Dylan say with a shocked voice as he read the sentence the little slime had written.
I had forgotten that he could read Ancient Terrarian, that and many other languages. Nerd...
"I'm glad you're feeling better. Waking up only to find out that everything has changed is a situation that I can say, from experience, is not good..." Devas said to the small slime.
He could read that language too?
"Devas... What the hell is this slime? And why does it know how to write and seems to be intelligent?" My "cousin" asked in a shocked voice.
As if realizing just now that he was surrounded by other Terrarians besides Devas, the slime turned, looking, or at least I think it was looking, at each of us before creating a tiny hand and waving as if greeting us?
"What the hell?" Robyn muttered from the other side of the table, next to Gilbert, who was cleaning his glasses as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"This is Millia. She's not an 'it' but rather a 'she.'" Devas introduced the slime who nodded, writing more words that, fortunately, Dylan translated.
"I am a girl, don't confuse me with a boy, I am much prettier than they are." Dylan said aloud, reading the words.
"Much smarter too, as you can see." Devas commented amused, with the shocked faces of everyone at the table. "She is what I said I would get yesterday. I went to get her, basically." He explained, putting the staff that the slime, Millia...
I can't believe the slime has a name, and a pretty name at that.
... had come out of.
The slime waved, thanking, before grabbing the staff and placing it on top of her head, stuck like a flag.
"And... she... knows how to write why again? Or better, she is intelligent! How?!" Robyn was the one who asked this time. "I'm a zoologist, Devas, I know animals, I know monsters, I know slimes! None of them talk!" She explained, her voice growing with each word.
"To be honest, I have no idea." Devas said before looking at Millia. "Why are you intelligent? I'm curious about that too."
"Every slime can become intelligent!" Dylan began to speak, reading the words that were forming. "She even knows how to use punctuation?" He muttered just before continuing to read.
"Daddy said I am special, that I was born much smarter than all the slimes he knew, including Mommy! :D." A little face?
She could express herself with drawings?!
I was so shocked by the events that I almost missed the fact that she had mentioned: "Daddy" and "Mommy." Could slimes have children? They didn't just appear out of nowhere because of the world's mana?
"Daddy said it took him a long time to become intelligent, and that he had to fight many mean slimes to become so strong and smart!" Dylan continued talking in a monotone voice, as if his body were on autopilot.
I would have commented on the face Dylan was making if I wasn't sure that I myself was making the same one.
I expected many things coming to this meeting and joining this team, but finding out that our leader is a gemstone rank contractor and that he has a slime that can write was definitely not one of them...
[...]
POV: Devas Asura.
I can't say that seeing everyone's shocked faces when Millia appeared wasn't entertaining.
For me, someone entirely foreign to Terraria, discovering that Millia was intelligent was a surprise. I can only imagine how it must be for them, who have lived their whole lives with the common sense that slimes were just bouncing gel balls randomly around the world.
Speaking of Millia, the little slime seemed better after a night's sleep, or at least she claimed to be better, as I had no idea how to distinguish the mood of a tiny gel ball.
"I'll explain things to you later, alright, Millia?" I asked the slime, who nodded, realizing that we were no longer in the garden on the flying island.
Millia then transformed the lower part of her body into four wheels, as she had done when traversing the mansion, and rolled across the table until she reached me. She transformed the lower part of her body again, this time into a chair, as if sitting like I was.
Ignoring Millia, who seemed content just to watch, I turned my attention back to the Minimap first, where Selina's point had turned green some time ago.
It was a good sign, as if it were still yellow, or worse, red, things would have gotten complicated... to say the least.
"And about WinterHord itself. What's the layout of the place where it's located?" I asked Dylan, who was the first to recover due to the sound of my voice.
"I have many questions... But I'll save them for later." He commented before starting to explain. "The city is in the mountainous region in the north, surrounded by snowy mountains with some forests around." He explained.
"And the storm, do you have any plan to cross it?" I had some, the main one being to use the barrier I was creating in the Humvee, but I wasn't against a more economical plan, a plan that wouldn't cost dozens of Artificial Sapphires.
"I have some matrices in mind that can open a path for us to pass." The guide commented before pointing to Robyn's snowy owl, which was looking at Millia.
I was sure that if I weren't here, this bird would have jumped on Millia and attacked her. It was good that the owl had good instincts...
"Another way would be to use Robyn's ice fox and snowy owl to guide us through the storm." Robyn nodded in agreement. She still seemed a bit shocked by Millia's existence, but she was recovering.
"These two animals have an excellent sense of direction in extremely cold places, even more so since these two in particular are natives of WinterHord. They are actually our best option," Dylan commented before falling silent.
"Hmm..." I hummed as I drummed my fingers lightly on the table. "You said they are natives of WinterHord?" I asked. With the confirmation, I spoke again.
"Why didn't anyone in the city think of using these animals to find the way out of the storm?" It's not possible that a village in the middle of a bunch of snowy mountains doesn't have a single person who knows how to train these animals.
Robyn knew and had two of them, and it didn't even snow in the realm!
"I thought the same thing." Gilbert commented. "It would be simple, as strong as the storm might be, the weather would still be bearable with specialized clothing, so why? Why were people still stuck there?" He asked everyone.
"Is the weather colder inside?" Selina asked, briefly looking at me and Millia before continuing. "Mana storms are worse than normal snowstorms, and this one in particular is the largest mana storm ever seen. The chance of the weather being too cold for movement is immense."
It was a good point...
I had no idea how cold the colder regions of Terraria could get, especially a region being affected by a mana storm, but on Earth, where none of this existed, there were populated places that reached forty degrees below zero, maybe more, fifty degrees below zero, sixty.
With mana involved, intensifying a snowstorm? I wouldn't doubt that the temperature could reach minus one hundred.
"How many negative degrees can these animals withstand?" I asked Robyn.
"Due to their specialized fur and feathers, around minus sixty degrees." Robyn explained as she ran her hand over the fur of the snowy fox in her lap. "That's not even considering mana, which they can use to cover their fur and stay warm." She commented briefly with a pause before continuing.
"... If I were to guess, my dear Lili here could endure up to minus ninety, minus one hundred maybe, for a few hours. The real problem would be food and hydration..." She said with a somber face.
I'll assume Lili is the name of the fox and that the owl can do something similar...
I'll also assume that a city located in this region, affected by recurring snowstorms and mana storms, has some form of protection against the cold.
A matrix of Mystic Symbols, probably...
Since the city is the main source of silk from Wall Creeper, it's not crazy to expect that the people's clothes in the city are made with this material, or at least partially made with this material.
This material is an excellent mana conductor, which would enhance the Mystic Symbols sewn with this silk. Mystic Symbols that would keep people warm.
So far, in this line of thought, the cold is a problem but not something insurmountable. As for food and water, I highly doubted that no one in that city had a Travel Space, especially the nobles in that region.
Moving the city was one thing, but no one leaving there already in search of help was just messed up.
Of course, the mana storm could interfere with the Mystic Symbols, which would be a big problem, but still, there was something else going on...
It's not possible for an entire city to be isolated, with no one able to leave!
It had been over a week since this storm had started. Damn, at least one person had to have managed to get out of there, it's not like...
No... damn, it's not possible...
"Let's say..." I started to speak, letting my thoughts leak. "...There is something that can freely walk in that cold or in even colder cold and is actively hunting everything in that region... What are the chances of something like that existing?" I asked.
"Impossible." It was the instant response, coming from two people, Selina and Robyn.
"The snowy fox and the white owl are the two species that can endure the cold the most in the whole world, and still, they can withstand such cold for only a few hours." Robyn shook her head denying.
"Something colder than minus one hundred degrees? I don't know of any animal that can do that, even." She denied again.
"I'm not a Mystic Symbols expert, but I doubt even with specialized protection something could survive in such an environment for more than a few hours." And the storm had started more than a week ago. Everyone at the table knew that.
"I have the same opinion. Especially with such a strong mana storm, the Mystic Symbols would be damaged without proper protection. It's basically impossible, if not entirely impossible." Selina denied as well.
Both had excellent points, and valid points based on something concrete that both had knowledge of...
"And you two?" I pointed to Gilbert and Dylan. "What's your opinion?" I asked.
"I'm not versed in my daughter's field..." Gilbert commented. "Nor am I as well-versed in Mystic Symbols as the Oakwood kid and the newcomer there." He said pointing to Dylan and Selina.
"But I'm experienced, and I know you wouldn't have asked something like this without reason." Dylan seemed to share the same opinion.
"I agree with the old man, and furthermore, something we thought was impossible has happened before, hasn't it?" He said with a serious look. Yes... Goblins being smart had been a shock to him.
"And it happened again, didn't it?" He said pointing to Millia, who was paying attention to the conversation, that, or she had fallen asleep, as she had been standing still for a while.
"Once is an accident, twice, a coincidence... What are the chances of it happening a third time, and we have a pattern?" Gilbert commented after Dylan fell silent.
I let silence reign over the table for a few seconds before starting to speak again.
"And if it were the snow?" Seeing the confused looks on everyone's faces, I continued.
"What if it's the snow that's killing the people of WinterHord, not the cold, but the snow itself, which has come to life and started killing?" I asked, making the eyes of everyone at the table widen.
Snow Golems were a thing in Terraria, that shitty nickname I had received was literally about that...
Natural snow golems created by some abnormal phenomenon were not impossible to imagine, and given the recent events, the chance of them being artificial and not natural was immense...
An entire region, twisted in an artificial way to kill the inhabitants... It was a frightening thought...
But there was another option, which really made me wonder what was scarier...
An army made of snow that desperately wanted to kill what wasn't
made of snow...
... Or a single enemy coming from another world that shouldn't exist in Terraria?...
[...]---[...]
Well, I delayed this chapter a bit, but here it is!
Onto the chapter then:
Well, Devas saw the rewards he received from the dungeon, quite good rewards, especially the Solidifier.
As for the Humvee, it should be ready in the next chapter, where the journey to WinterHord finally begins.
Finally, Selina. She was the Steampunker, not the mechanic. I left it ambiguous on purpose since it didn't matter whether you knew who she was or not, as her identity would be revealed in the next chapter. (This one, in this case).
I let her personality be very tomboyish, even worse than Robyn's, as I thought it would be fun for a mechanical genius to be a bit unfiltered.
Well, having said that, good night, and happy reading!
PS: I'll probably add more pictures of items and characters tomorrow, so stay tuned!
PSS: I really liked Millia, to be honest, especially the way she moves. Imagining a little slime walking on wheels it created is very funny (at least to me).