Hope.
Throughout my life, I can't say I've felt something like that.
Sure, 500 years is a long time, but you wouldn't feel something without any reason to.
Following that principle, I have never even begun to fathom something like the end of Cthulhu.
The idea was there, sure, but it felt so far away.
Far enough for me to not concern myself with such things.
Not that I had anything else to concern myself with.
Just looking out for nature, and protecting the world(At least trying) from the influence of its systems.
My life was monotone, and when it wasn't monotone, it was boring.
Focus in my wording, I said ¨Was¨ monotone, as in past.
"So that happened" Said the monstrous child, with his monstrous kid sitting on a flying worm(Not going to touch that topic)
"What do you mean that happened?!" I said.
That was one of my weirdest conversations, ever.
It just made no sense, y'know?! That fast?!
Didn't he come here yesterday?! Has he been scouting or something?
No, Terraria told me he appeared out of the air while Cthulhu's eye was on the village.
So, what? He just went and killed them?
"...I killed the brain by kicking its heart" He said as if that explained everything.
And it did, because he did that, HE JUST WENT AND KILLED THEM.
Oh my god.
Just like that, they're dead.
And he's not lying either, Terraria is confirming it too.
Sheesh, at this rate nothing will be a challenge to him. Who will be the one who pushes him to the edge? Ctulh-
...
Wait?
I mean, if he gets to Cthulhu, right?
That would be the ideal case. But he might fall before he gets there. Hopefully not.
"No, because you're telling me you went to one of the most dangerous places in the world, entered the enemy base, summoned the eldritch entity overseeing the entire biome, and easily killed them—two times in about five hours," I said, exasperated.
"Yeah, I did" He said nonchalantly.
He spoke as if he were stating something normal, as if he were talking about the weather or what to eat today.
Something in my heart started to beat.
Something that I couldn't feel before.
Something that I couldn't describe yet.
"...You're making me think this is a normal occurrence" My voice came out slightly cracked.
Is it fine to... feel this? Like this? Me?
"It would be good if you got used to this, then. At least for the time being."
Oh...
Well, he's just a child, so he doesn't know what he's talking about...
But there is some truth in his words.
It would be dumb for me to wallow in my self-deprecation.
I couldn't do better back then, because I didn't know better, now that I do, I can't fall back in.
Now there's a chance for me to do better, to do what they couldn't, or at least support he who can.
"Alright then, let's just get this over with." I said, completely calm and serene.
Perhaps I could get used to this feeling.
I don't remember where I heard it.
Maybe I'm just hoping for something to come out of this.
...
[Progress Bar: 94%]
15% for the eye, and two 20s for the brain and the eater.
Soon enough, I will be able to pull.
Should I? Maybe something that's a lower level than usual could appear because of the world I'm in...
Or maybe I could wait until getting the thirty pulls... How much time? A little above 20 days?
[23 Days and 20 hours] [Paused until end of ticket]
...HUuHUhuh?????
It's paused????
How come I didn't notice that???
Is this really happening right now??
Whatever... I'll be able to pull by my achievements soon.
How are the assimilations going?
[Assimilation Process:]
-Roland Deschain - 90%
-Dante Zogratis - 24%
-Oliver Grayson - 11%
It didn't go up by too much... Maybe if I had fought at close quarters it would have been better to advance with the Viltrumite.
And Dante... yeah, I'll just wait for it to go up naturally. I can already use a bit of his magic too, not much better than the telekinesis I already had, though.
Roland's is almost done, it'll probably be done by the end of the week.
If I keep my progress up, then the Moon-Lord will be done in a month or so, giving me 3 months left to learn about anything else of importance.
And then I'll be back... and what then?
Hmm... I'll think about it later.
"We're here." I was brought out of my thoughts by the dryad.
In front of me stood the entrance to the dungeon, much bigger than I expected.
The green bricks felt unstable under my feet, but resting in the middle of the path, an old man lay down as if they were the most comfortable bed he had ever slept in.
"Uhm, excuse me." I gently shake the old man.
The dryad slowly walked backwards, leaving me alone to wake him up.
"..." He wakes up.
"Poor poor kid..." It's the only thing that comes out of his mouth.
He looks at me, regret and guilt somehow fill his lifeless eyes, stunning me for a moment.
Before I could answer or react, his body spasms unnaturally, before mutating into a bigger form.
In no time Skeletron appeared in front of me.
...
"Let's see now." Calista, already far away from the entrance, takes out her binoculars and watches how the fight will go.
As Skeletron manifests itself, she watches the kid... enter into battle position?
"Wait, he's not going to punch the-" He jumps and punches the head of Skeletron, throwing it straight to the roof of the entrance, making a huge gaping hole in it.
He falls down to the solid ground and coils his legs like a spring, jumping to the still staggered head of Skeletron and delivering a sledgehammer, sending it back down to the entrance.
The skeletal hands try to grab him by the sides, but he punches one and grabs onto the other, crushing it with both arms and falling to the ground.
As he breaks down the hand and its arm, the head shoots an energy-shaped skull towards him. It hits him, but he endures and dashes for the head.
The head tries to make distance, but backs off into the dungeon, leaving it with no room to escape.
He follows the head, and the rest of the fight is covered by the darkness of the room, leaving her with no news of it until the other hand that didn't enter the dungeon falls to the ground, unmoving.
Shortly after, a figure comes out of the darkness, clothes slightly brushed and a hole in his black shirt, showing his stomach.
"Alright, we go in now or we have to talk to the old- Where's the old man?" He looks around the destroyed entrance.
"Calista, Where's the old man?" He said with fake despair in his voice.
"Uh, he will be remade by the power of the dungeon once the sun hits the sky"
"Ohh, ok then. I wouldn't have been able to sleep comfortably if I killed him... Not that I sleep a lot." He said and walked into the dungeon.
"Huh? You're walking to the dungeon?" I said, still a bit stunned about, well, what isn't there to be stunned.
"Yeah? I mean, there's gotta be stuff in there, right?" He said as if it was obvious.
Well, yes, but also, no.
"I'm repeating myself, at this point, but aren't you tired?"
"Nah... Are you going to come in with me or do you have something to do?" He said, stopping for a moment to look at me.
"No, I have something to do" I said quickly.
"...Okay" He suspected for a bit, but jumped nonetheless.
I'm not lying, I do have something to do.
Something to prepare before his eventual fight with the Guardian of the world.
I'll have to talk to the order...
...
While I throw myself down the dungeon, I inspect the progression again.
-Oliver Grayson: 18%
Ooh, +7%. So I need to punch things until they die and I will be good to go.
I walked and jumped through the dungeon, Eleanor was flying on her worm and going ahead of me, so she had no problem.
Getting everything I wanted here was easier than I thought.
Some of the enemies in here had gold keys on them, so I used them to open the gold chests left around. Obtaining a muramasa, a cobalt shield and a shadow key in three different chests.
The muramasa is useless, but in the long run I could make a Zenith with it, so I'll take it. As for the shield, well, maybe it will be usable to make the ankh shield; the shadow key is maybe for the treasure magnet.
I also picked several potions, ore bars, coins, and things from the environment(Bewitching table, alchemy table...) making them float alongside me.
By the way, I'm also taking the biome chests. I can't open them yet, and they are too tough for me to break them, but who will tell me not to move them? The game moderators? Pfft.
My clothes are a bit torn from all the fighting and my fists kinda tingle, but everything is fine apart from them, well, the spot where skeleton threw me a skull kinda hurts, but it should be fixed by the morning.
All in all, I should be getting out of here, if I need something else I can just come back later, it's not a big deal.
Eleanor suddenly appeared out of a dark path, grabbing me by the arm and trying to drag me somewhere. She seemed quite flustered.
"Okay, Okay! I'll go over there." I said, taking her under my arm and running towards where she wanted me to go.
Apparently, she wanted to show me something.
Well, there's a lot of interesting things to see here, such as slimes, skulls, skeletons, magic skeletons, warrior skeletons, bound redhaired skele- That's not a skeleton.
Stepping into a slightly larger area, I saw a lot of masked figures moving around, and a woman bound in rope, looking at the void mindlessly.
This area, unlike the others, was very illuminated, so they all saw me the moment I stepped into the room.
"..." No cultist said a word.
"..." The mechanic stared at me like I was a mirage.
"..." Eleanor, as eloquent as always.
"..." Me, unsure of what to do.
Wordlessly, every cultist took out their bows and weapons. Some ran to me, some shot me, the mechanic cried silently, Eleanor just stood there, her worm killed some cultists.
Neither of us had to do anything as her worm just killed everything in our path, leaving none to be interrogated or anything.
"..." The mechanic stared at us like we were an illusion, before she fell to the floor, without moving.
I quickly made myself to her side and checked her heartbeat.
"She's alive." I say, leaving the rest of her condition unsaid.
She's alive, but very sick.
Malnutrition, dehydration, bruises all around her body...
"To the nurse then, but before..."
I gave her a healing potion and carefully took her up in a princess carry, I would make her fly with the stuff that I'm carrying, but I can't float whole humans yet, must be a weight limit or something.
Coming out of the dungeon, I see no trace of Calista, so I summon my mirror grimoire in case I'd need to defend myself. I'm carrying Skeletron's body parts too, by the way.
Some enemies attack us, but we see no other complication before we reach the small village where we were currently residing.
The roads were mostly empty save some people who did random 3 am activities, none batted an eye when they saw me though.
Going to one of the few buildings still open, I went as calmly as possible and asked for medical attention.
The nurse there, apparently the only one in night duty, patched her up, gave her a few liquids and put her to rest.
Since I didn't have anything better to do, I stayed by her side, sitting on a chair while Eleanor went to her room in the inn.
I can sleep anywhere, but the day isn't quite over for me.
[Progress Bar: 114%]
Y'know, normally, I would pull and give my commentary on each thing, but now the only thing that I want is to get some sort of healing way, or a spatial bag so that I don't have to carry around these trinkets floating to my side.
The void bad sounds kinda cool, but not now.
Anyways, my point is that I'm changing the gacha now, instead of a 10 pull being shown 1 by 1, they will be shown all at once.
All set and done, let's go.
[1: Grass Sword - Adventure Time]
[2: Inventory - Terraria]
[3: Yaka Arrow - Marvel]
[4: Gauche - Black Clover]
[5: Excella Gionne - Resident Evil]
[6: Scissor Blades - Kill la Kill]
[7: Elucidator - Sword Art Online]
[8: Ranmaru - Naruto]
[9: Teruhashi Kokomi - Saiki K]
[10: Apport - Saiki K]
Uh-huh...
4 cool weapons, a spatial inventory coming from the world I'm in, useless character, hot character, useful character(At least for his eyes), I don't know what to do with Teruhashi, and apport was one of many Saiki's weird abilities, right? Can I even assimilate or will it remain like the Soft And Wet stand in my inventory.
Alright, I guess Gauche can have his uses...
I sincerely don't know what I can do with Excella. Maybe I'll get a mechanic to burn cards or something? It's not even the mutated version that can absorb body mass, just the normal one.
Well, maybe if I make her mutate in some way... But that would entail summoning her, and I don't know if I can turn her back into a card. Eleanor can turn back into a plushie, and then a card, but I think that's because she's a hybrid...
Ranmaru was the kid with glowing red eyes... I can assimilate him for them, but he doesn't know many jutsus, and his chakra isn't that good, so I'll need to wait until I get someone with proper knowledge.
I think I'll assimilate Teruhashi. I mean, she was the girl so pretty she was favored by god, right? Maybe I'll get something like a x2 charisma stat with all gods and goddesses... It's not my desire to be that good looking speaking, I swear. Although being that pretty could be a bother in my day-to-day.
The grass sword, the Yaka arrow, the scissor sword, and the Elucidator are... cool. Not that useful, but they are neat to have.
I like the grass sword, it was my second favorite among Finn's swords, behind the blood sword one. The Yaka arrow is that thing Yondu used with his whistle, but it was only usable because of his prosthetic... Meh, it's an item so it should be usable without it.
The scissor sword can get bigger, so if I need to destroy a big area, I will do so. The Elucidator was Kirito's famed black sword... I remember when that anime came out and everyone in every open world game searched for black robes and black swords... Well, whatever, it's not a bad sword technically, just a little below my level.
Apport was the power saiki used to interchange items that were similar in price. Like a TV that costs 100 dollars and another one that costs 110 dollars. I'm interested to see where this power would be used for... but it doesn't go too far.
The equivalent interest you would feel if you saw a... let's say, weird object, you would wonder how it would be used, where it would be used, why it was made... but soon enough you would keep on with your day.
Well, I don't lose anything for assimilating this, it's not like I have a power limit or something like that, and yes, I just checked, I can take it.
Lastly, the most interesting thing here. The inventory.
Maybe the world I'm in does influence my pulls. Well, Terraria is a strong world, in the limit of the low level ones, maybe because the bottom tiers drag down the top tiers.
Because if the Moon Lord and the Celestial Pillars can drag down the moon closer to the earth, then that's a middle level world.
But I don't think that the level of the world is determined only by raw power and how much destruction anything can cause... Maybe it's technology, inhabitants, an average power level, cosmology, places, etc.
Anyways, I'm not addressing the main point here: Spatial Inventory.
I mean, an inventory to store things is like the most basic thing in an isekai, right? Because I'm 60 pulls in and I barely got one.
Assimilating the card, I get impressed for once.
It's not only the 10x5 inventory, but it also has special places for the coins, the ammo, the armor, and the dyes.
Only the social armor and dyes, but still, it's kinda cool.
Hmm, now I'll have to look at the dyes in the store.
Well, it's nice to have 50 slots of space to store things, even if it will get filled up rather quickly.
It would have been good to be able to craft, but it would be more of a nice perk, I wouldn't need to see the goblin tinkerer every time I need something done.
*Huhh*
Oh? Is that a sleep pattern change I detect?
You can't fool my super senses, but okay, I will respect your decision to fake sleep until you feel safe enough.
"Wow, it truly is a nice day outside." I say shamelessly, looking at the darkness past the window.
Of course, you will have to respect my decision to bother you until you fake your awakening.
No outward changes happen in her figure, but I can feel how she tenses.
"Woah, I'm rather hungry now." I say, taking the synthesizer(It's already in need of a name change) out of my inventory and pressing a random food plate.
The smell reaches her nostrils and her brows furrow ever so slightly. I got to give it to her, she manages her reactions very nicely.
*Nom*
"Sooooooooo Tasty" I'm petty like that.
"Om~Nom" I'm petty like that THAT.
She decides she's had enough and suddenly gets up from her lying position and lunges at my food, taking it from my hands.
The candy gets devoured in no time and I give her some more to satisfy her.
Once she has eaten it all, she looks at me, expressionless.
I take out a drink from the food-maker(Nop, next name) and give it to her, she gulps it down in record time and plops back down to her bed.
Where she falls asleep with a satisfied look.
I decide to rest my back against the wall, and sleep in my chair.
For some reason, I can sleep whenever I want to, it's like giving an order to my body, and it obeys.
Mind commands and flesh obeys, I guess.
...
I woke up to the sound of muffled sobs and I turned to see the mechanic standing near the window of her hospital room, I can't see her face, but I can tell she's crying, the happy crying kind.
I wait until she finishes her appreciation of nature, or the sky, or the sun, or whatever she lacked while trapped in the dungeon.
She finally finishes and looks at me, silent.
"Good morning, are you hungry?" I say, a little smile in my mouth.
"Yeah... a bit."
"Alright, then, here's some comfort food." I give her a small bowl of soup.
I'm not lying, the name of the food is literally ¨Comfort food¨.
Made with solid water and basic ingredients, that sentence sounds kinda weird, but it comes from a weird universe, so eh.
"Thanks..." She accepts the bowl of food, before I give her a spoon I bought earlier.
Can you believe the make-it-all(Am I that uncreative?) doesn't have utensils?
To not make her uncomfortable, I also start drinking another soup bowl with her.
We stay in a comfortable silence, before she starts crying again, her tears falling into the soup.
Damn, for how much time was she there? What was the lore again...? I think she made the mechanical bosses, right?
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... The food is good, it's just... too good." She says between sobs.
"It's fine, it's fine, take your time."
No more words were needed until she finished the bowl in its entirety.
"So..." She asked me.
"Uh, yeah, you're probably wondering what happened... What's the last thing you remembered?"
"Well, I saw you, and I saw a worm, and it killed all the hooded guys, and I thought I was dying, but I also thought I was going insane, and I got really nervous, and..." She says nervously.
"Okay, okay... Let me explain to you what happened."
I gave her a basic rundown about the events that happened that night.
"I see... Ah!" She suddenly springs up and remembers something. "I need to tell... Something, to someone important, like, world-level important!" She tries to get up but almost trips.
"Hmm, normally, I would tell you to lay down and rest for 2 weeks, but since you're in such a hurry..." I help her stabilize herself.
The food that I gave her also helped a lot with her healing process, she should be physically fine to move a lot.
'I'm going to the Dryad's place' I tell Eleanor through our mental connection, and she does the equivalent of a nod. That action was a bit lackluster, so I'll assume she was sleeping.
It's not so early in the morning... like 10 am, but she likes to sleep.
We get out of the hospital(Easier than I thought, especially considering the state I brought her in yesterday) and I take her to the dryad.
Perhaps she wants to talk about what she did in the dungeon, who's to say she only made the mechanical monsters.
We arrive quickly, and I let Calista know of our presence, very calmly.
"CALISTAAAAA! You here?!" I say serenely.
The mechanic looks at me weird, but the dryad comes out of her house, leaving her to question my methods, but not my results.
"Why are you screaming?! It's too early for... Huh? Who is this?" She says.
"She was trapped in the dungeon-" "Huh?!" "-so I killed the hooded guys guarding her-" "HUH?!" "-then I got her to the hospital, and when she woke up, she told me she needed to see someone important, world-level important, and I thought of you." I say, not bothering to acknowledge the times she interrupted me.
She looked various degrees of shocked, but composed herself.
"What the fuck?" She didn't. Without leaving me time to answer, she continued. "Never mind, what do you need to talk about?" She lets the mechanic talk.
"..." But the red-haired girl looks a bit unsure to answer in my presence.
"Don't worry, at the end of the day he's going to have to kill whatever monster you saw." Calista dismisses her worries.
"...I didn't see it." She started.
"...Continue." The dryad said softly.
"I made it-no. I made them." She said with strength in her voice.
"..." Calista placed her hand on the mechanic's shoulder, it started to glow green, and the red-haired girl started to calm down, apparently it was some sort of soothing effect.
"Huuh..." She took a deep breath and started detailing her experience. "When I got kidnapped, they, the cultists-" Calista's eyes hardened for a moment, before returning to normal. "-they told me to make some body parts... but they were too big in size."
She gulped.
"I made a spine, it had projectiles, drones, and lasers." She showed her index finger.
"Then I made a skeleton, with various weapons." She raised the middle finger alongside the other.
"Lastly, I made two eyes, also with lasers." She raised the ring finger.
While the dryad deadpanned, I made the real questions.
"Where are these mechanical monsters?" I asked.
If I could kill them before the WoF boss fight, then maybe I could access Plantera early?
"I don't know." Nop, I won't be able to.
"Some guy with a white mask came some time ago and took it outside, I don't even know how long ago, since there wasn't anything to measure time there." I'm fairly sure there was a clock in there, well, a clock but not a calendar.
"..." Calista looked deep in thought.
While I didn't.
"Hmm... Well, it's time for investigation, right?" I said, already preparing to jump wherever I had to.
"While I don't want to agree with your rash methods, yes, we need to investigate. But we need clues before you go around the world." Calista cut off my enthusiasm.
"Fair, where to?" I looked at both of the women in here.
"...One of the hooded men with the white masked guy said something about the queen when he was there." The mechanic suddenly remembered.
"Queen?" The dryad put her fingers to her jaw. "That's either the queen bee, or the queen of the kingdom." The what?
Ah yeah, the kingdom.
I think that Eve mentioned it... But we're the equivalent of the countryside here, so no problem.
And there was a princess NPC in the game. She has no reason to appear now, so everything is good.
"Okay, so I'll go to the jungle, inspect everything over there, and you will go to... talk to the queen? Inspect the kingdom?" I asked the Dryad.
"Not personally, but I know someone who can get that sort of information." She said cryptically.
"Alright then, before I go, I want you to answer something." I look at Calista.
"What?"
"This queen bee..."
"..."
"Is she strong?"
"...goddamnit, this psycho." She mumbles under her breath. "She has poison and can summon bees." And tries to dissuade me.
"So she is!" I said, excited.
"Yeah, yeah..." Calista kinda gave up with me, and told me the direction to the jungle.
Before that...
"Hey, Ms. Mechanic?" I addressed the silent red-haired to our side.
"Yeah?" She seemed a bit out of her element, but paid attention to my words.
"What are you going to do now?" I asked her.
The dryad raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.
"...I had a shop, so I'll go look at it." She said, answering my question, but just the half of it.
"And then?" I pressed her.
"...I'll go to the hospital." She answered.
"And then?" I pressed more.
"...What are you talking about?" She asked me.
"Well, what I'm trying to say is that you should talk to someone..." I paused to make my words sink into her for a moment. "As in, tell what happened down in the dungeon, liberate yourself, you know?"
She didn't answer, but I could tell what bothered her by her eyes.
"Well, I've never had something like that happen to me, so I can't say I understand your fears, but what I can tell you, is that everything will pass at a certain point."
"That would be good." I tell her. "The fear and bad moments will be left behind, and you will continue with your life. But you know what else would be left behind?" I asked a rhetorical question.
She shook her head.
"The chance." Once again, I stopped to let my words sink into her head. "The chance to overcome what happened to you with your own strength, because, sure, with time you will evolve, change, and become a better person. BUT!"
I take a small breath.
"What you lived through will be a part of you for your entire life... Have you ever heard of ¨The pain doesn't go away, you just learn to live with it¨?" Her eyes widened as she seemingly began to understand my point.
"Some kinds of pain can become a part of you, yes, but not this one, or at least it shouldn't be." I tell her, the righteousness coming out of my body.
"Both surpassing the pain, and accepting it are part of growing as a person, but the difference lies in what kind of pain are you treating... Do you want this pain to be part of your life?" I said, ending my speech.
Her eyes slightly shone, but she wiped them before anything could escape from them.
"Well, I don't think I can say anything more. Just... please consider my words." I said before sprinting away.
...
After Arian left, the two women stood in a silence, neither spoke up, one too nervous to do so, and the other unsure of doing any rash movements that might trigger the emotionally disturbed mechanic.
"So... What's your name?" Calista asked, while she guided the guest back to her house.
Unsure if she should follow her, the mechanic didn't react to the question as fast as she could've.
"Um... Terra." The red-haired girl answered.
It was unknown if she was a shy person, or just a bit staggered from the sudden changes in her life.
"Terra, do you... want to talk?" The dryad said, unsure of the direction of her actions.
"I... Think I want to..."
"Okay, then, we can start small... What do you like to eat?" The dryad changed the theme suddenly.
A bit whiplashed by the sudden change of tone, she hesitated for a bit before answering. "Well, I have a preference for... sweets?" She basically asked.
"That's great, now your turn." Calista said.
She was going too fast for the comfort of the girl, but in her defense, it's not every day that she needs to be a therapist for a girl with circumstances as unique as Terra's.
Not that psychology is a real branch of studies in the world yet.
"Uh. Why are you helping me?" Terra asked.
"Eh?" Calista tilted her head slightly.
"Well, I don't want to seem ungrateful, but maybe it's the part of my head that can't accept help without knowing if there's some intention behind it..." Her tone lowered as she neared the end of her sentence, as if she was ashamed of her question and intents.
"Oh, don't worry, I can understand where you come from, like, when I met Arian the first thing I asked him was what were his intentions afterwards." Calista dismissed her worries easily.
"!" While not verbal, she definitely reacted to those words.
"Yeah! Let me tell you that story in a moment, to answer your question... Well, there's no answer!" She said with a large smile on her face.
"..." The poor girl's brain was working hard to decipher the meaning of her words.
"You see, I'm connected to the world, and the world loves you."
"...?"
"Well, not you in particular, but it loves everything in it. Because of that connection, I want to help you. But, don't misunderstand, I also want to help you, and I don't have a specific reason to do so."
"Why don't you have a reason?" Terra was slightly annoyed at the half-baked answers she was giving.
"Why would I need a reason?" She shot back instantly. "You're a young girl who has passed through some bad experiences, the normal and sensitive thing would be to help you. Furthermore, you're part of the world I take care of, if my position had a job description it would include ¨Help everyone¨ as a task." That answer shut her up.
"..." Literally.
"So, like, nice weather huh?" Calista suddenly said.
"...Yeah... It is a nice weather."
Terra allowed herself to bask in the air around her and in the sunshine that fell on her skin, appreciating it in ways someone who has never lacked them wouldn't be able to understand.
...
"The fuck did I did back there?" I asked myself as I jumped from tree to tree, rock to tree, tree to land, land to rock, and so on.
Apparently, I had some fondness towards the girl back there, understandable, I remember telling myself things about empathy towards another human some time ago. Things about how empathy was a normal human feeling. My actions are completely justified.
Yep, it's completely fine.
"Oh, please." I told myself, cutting that line of thought, refusing to lie to myself.
Let's see this from a larger perspective, why did I give her that speech?
"I already stated that empathy wasn't the case, so what are the other possibilities?"
Did I feel pity? That goes by the same line of empathy, so no.
Did it bother me to see her sad? Well, yes, but I wouldn't have gone out of my way in such a forceful manner.
I mean, do I need a reason to help someone? Not really, but I feel there's a reason.
Do I like the mechanic girl? Nah, she's good looking and cute, but I don't know her at all.
Actually, most of the ones that appeared in the game are good looking, the guide, the mc, the dryad, even the goblin tinkerer had some decent looks, even if they were obstructed by his goggles.
Then, was it the male instinct of protecting a woman? I highly doubt it, I've never displayed that trait, and I probably never will, so no.
I'm running out of thoughts here, and I can practically hear the jungle music, so let's set aside those doubts.
Entering the jungle, the first thing that greeted me was the big turtle coming from the heavens to strike me in the head.
I punched it, and while it stung my hand a bit, it went flying back to god knows where.
"Alright, let's speedrun the queen bee." I summoned my mirror magic and I started blasting a hole in a stair-shaped manner.
I already knew that the mech bosses weren't in the jungle, so I didn't even bother to look for them, I just searched for the hive. Well, the hive and some extra materials I might need.
Different from the game, I'm in a three-dimensional space, the places where the hive could be are much more.
And I can't use what Dante used to destroy mountains, the gravity singularity.
I mean, I can, but it's golf-ball sized, not good enough to make way in the jungle.
Plus, I just need more people and all will be good.
"Isn't that right, me?" I asked myself, who I created using the body double of the mirror grimoire.
"Were you monologuing in your head?" Myself told me.
"Just say yes." I told myself.
"Yeah, yeah..." Apparently, I wasn't with enough energy to answer me, as he left to create more clones.
I can create some clones, and he can create some other clones too.
Our limit is 8, but he has to use his own mana to create the clones, reducing his 10-minute lifespan.
Still, 8 clones are already good enough, we just need to hear, see, or even smell a little clue.
Maybe smell the honey, see a random bee, hear them zoom through the air... Anything goes.
One of my many clones comes to me, apparently with important information to tell me.
"We found the hive, do your thing." He poofed out of existence with those words, even smoke appeared. The other clones followed him, and I went in the direction he came from.
Amidst the darkness of the underground jungle, a big area was highlighted by its yellow with black spots walls.
I just blew a hole in it and entered.
In the hive, I saw the queen bee, calmly sleeping in some sort of sturdy-looking surface, while many other bees flew around the whole hive, ignoring my presence unless I entered into contact with them.
Not losing any time, I positioned myself above the queen, and threw myself down, my hands positioned as if they were a sledgehammer.
"KRIEG!" The queen let out a scream similar to what a cockroach would sound like, alerting all of the other bees and aiming them to me.
"Ray." I said with a finger stretched towards the biggest group of bees, killing most of them.
As I did that, I was tackled from the back by the queen and pushed into the honey wall. I spun around and elbowed her in the head, throwing her to the side and letting me jump to the small surface where she was sleeping previously.
Just in time for her to ram against me, but this time I stood my ground and her attack only pushed me back for a few meters.
Grabbing her head, I pushed her down to the ground, where she struggled to get out, I didn't waste any time and kicked her in the head multiple times, while her back was being bombarded with mirror rays.
Unfortunately, she got out, but she was visibly damaged, and would not survive a straight punch to the head.
The queen threw me her stingers at high speeds and summoned various bees from outside the hive, she left some around her body for protection, while the rest assaulted me from the front.
Using enough rays, they were all gone, and I looked up to see... Nothing?
Nothing but a hole in the wall that was strangely queen bee shaped.
"Are you serious?" She ran away? I mean, she's an insect and I guess it's in her instinct, but I didn't expect this to happen.
What other things would run away from me? The slime royalties? The Mechanic bosses might think the battle is unwinnable and retreat... What about the Duke Fishron? Ugh...
Taking the thoughts off my head, I jumped to the hole, just in time to see the queen slowly escaping through the tunnels I created while arriving here.
Which(now that I note), should be blocked, as there were no supports to keep the dirt from falling. Is this where videogame logic applied? Or did the world help me out here?
Whatever, let me just kill the queen.
The tunnel was a straight diagonal to the surface so it was easy to see the boss escaping.
I summoned various mirrors to use as a foothold, with them I leaped through the tunnel, and while I didn't reach the queen, I got closer.
With leaps and mirrors, I got closer to the escaping queen, once I was close enough, she suddenly snapped towards me.
Ramming against me with her stinger in front.
"Ugh!" Shit, that kinda hurt.
She took my scream as a sign of effectiveness, and pressed harder.
Her dying body couldn't put enough strength to pierce through my body, so I just grabbed her stinger, and squished it.
She tried to back off, but she couldn't get rid of me. I pressed down harder on the grip and used my other hand to punch her torso, over and over until she lost the strength to fly and sent us to the dirt.
...
"Ugh, I feel like shit." I threw myself over the corpse of the queen bee, using it as a bed.
I think I'm being affected by the poison... I don't feel like I'm dying, but I feel worse than usual.
Reaching into my terraria inventory, I took out a healing potion. It didn't do anything for the poison, but I could feel my body healing the minor injuries that I sustained, mostly around my abdomen.
If we're going by Terraria's laws, then the poison should pass soon enough, if we aren't, then my body should process the poison or something.
Still it feels uncomfortable.
"Whatever, I can move so all is fine." I recomposed and looked to my uncomfortable bed.
Now, what do I do with the body? Is it good if I leave it to decompose here? I remember that anime of the shield hero, where one of the heroes killed a dragon but left the corpse to rot and it started an epidemic sprout... Would that happen? The queen bee is a poisonous monster, so most likely.
Wait, can't I just throw it into my terraria inventory?
And... I can! Just like that.
"Ok... Now that I think about it, can I place living things there? Would they feel the time pass? This might be a good prison..." I told myself.
Leaving those thoughts aside, I closed the tab and looked up to the surface.
I can't believe that I'm using this when I said that I have better alternatives, but...
"Rogue Sun." I took the stone from my gacha inventory and I summoned the armor.
Using it, I flew to where I came from, quickly reaching the dryad's house, obviously taking off the armor before I entered sight of the ones there.
...
"Done." I walked to the Dryad and the Mechanic, who were chatting happily inside the tree house.
"Hello to you too, done what?" Calista asked and looked at me.
"I went to the jungle, I searched for the machines, didn't find them, found the hive, entered, the queen attacked me, I killed the queen." I grabbed a cup and served myself some tea.
"Uh-huh..." Already accustomed to my speed and efficiency, she just nodded and moved on from the theme. "We were going to eat just now, do you want to join us?" She asked me as she walked to the oven.
"Eat? Isn't it too early for lunch?" I said.
"It's like 4 pm." She said.
"Is it?" Time passed quickly, I was in the underground for most of the time so I didn't notice it.
"Yeah, actually, what about your child?" A slight hint of a smirk appeared in her face.
I could feel the air displacement as the mechanic turned to me quickly, I didn't saw her expression but it was obvious she was glaring at me with ¨You have a child?!¨ eyes, eyes that were losing any respect they had for me, as I had just left my child alone for the whole day.
"She's probably asleep, if she wasn't she would have sent me some message." Excuses were made.
"Well, if you think so..." Oh wow, she's pulling that card. Damnit, now I feel like I'm a bad father, I don't even have children.
"Changing themes, what's the next thing I need to kill?" I asked because I don't want to discuss the cosmic worm that is now known as my child, and because I'm curious about what comes next.
All the hardmode bosses(Except the king slime and Deerclops, but the king can be killed at any moment, while Deerclops isn't really a thing) are done, so her answer should be about the wall of flesh, right?
"About that... there are some preparations to be done. You can come back in a week, in the meantime, you should probably explore hell, you'll be fighting there." Calista said seriously.
A week? That's cool, since it's been three days since I came to the world and I have months left, actually, I could use all the time of the travel ticket on killing the hardmode bosses, and it still would be a win for both me and my assimilations.
Of course, I would lose the technology... but that's fine, well, acceptable would be the better word.
"That's fine... but how do I get to hell?" I asked, obviously I know, but I can't just do that and not make it suspicious.
"Oh, you just need to go down." She told me as if that explained everything.
"Alright, bye, see you too Ms. Mechanic." I left after hearing my answer, a bit embarrassed to talk to the mechanic directly.
"Wait, he's not going to..." I heard the mechanic say as I was leaving.
"Oh, yeah. He's going to..." Calista answered.
She knows me so well, I will excavate until I get to hell.
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A/N: Yo.
At the start, the dryad was talking about the crimson and the corruption(The systems of the world). She was also talking about her birth *(I couldn't do better back then).* If you think about it, she was born a bit after the Cthulhu war, when the moon lord was sealed.
The possibility of her having an inferiority complex or some sort of variation is very high. No guide to help you, every one of your species dead, duties you're unsure about... Yeah, I can almost smell how that could be an actual plot of a series.
But she's already 500 years old, maybe not wise and mature like someone who's old and has a lesser lifespan, but still, let's give her some credit.