Whoa. That was all that I could think of as I looked around.
Sometimes I forget that I'm eight-years old, so seeing the towering trees above me shouldn't have been much of a surprise. Another thing I noticed was a young man with messy brunette hair, grey long sleeve shirt, and blue jeans striding casually towards me.
"They say there is a person who will tell you how to survive in this land... oh wait. That's me," He said, with me completing the end of his signature statement.
The Guide took on a ridiculous flabbergasted look at my knowing of his catchphrase. I simply smiled and tilted my head. Without any preamble I closed my eyes, spotting the… Sluggish copper axe in my inventory and summoning it from my inventory.
I hefted the axe in my young hands, and all I can really say about it is that the reforge is right, it is sluggish.
"Um…" The Guide droned as he watched as I began to chop at the base of a nearby tree, "How much do you know?"
"I know a lot, actually," I said, not looking back at him, "Wall of Guide."
"Ouch," he said with an audible hiss, "I can take any offensive name, but not that."
I turned to him after breaking my third tall tree, picking up the stray fruit and wood. Causing him to reflexively take a step back.
"Oh, but why are you connected to it?" I asked innocently.
"I'd- rather not answer," He said rubbing his chest in nervousness, "too personal of a question."
"Yeah, I can live with that answer," I said with a shrug, there's no point asking now as I still had a lot to do with the allotted time I gave myself.
In twenty minutes I cleared a rather large spot in the forest, eliciting a whistle out of The Guide.
"Damn kid, you move quick."
"I gotta, I didn't give myself a lot of time."
"Which, speaking of," he responded, a little too quickly for my liking, "How much do you know about the powers you have?"
"... Less than I should," I admitted, feeling my age as he crossed his arms with disappointment on his face.
"Would you want me to help you?" he asked, with barely concealed anticipation at my answer.
"Yes please."
With a roar, he immediately picked me up into a crushing bear hug, laughing all the while.
"It feels so good to still be in business!"
With a wheeze I palmed his face, causing him to drop me with a sheepish grin.
"Alright, alright," I grumbled, recollecting my breath, "Now start from the top with my Journey Powers."
———————————————————————
Thankfully, Andrew–The Guide–wasn't an utter NPC and could follow me as I explored the surrounding area and explained the power menu.
"Research," He started, holding out a single finger in counting, "Self-explanatory, you consume materials to later make infinite amounts of it."
"Uh huh," I replied, sliding into a wide crevice in the earth, spotting a wood chest for my efforts.
"Which then leads to Duplication."
"Duplicate can only recreate but so much at once before needing to recharge, certain items and materials have larger and greater draw on your Research allowance."
"Wait, so I can't duplicate gold coins into Platinum coins for infinite money?" I asked, head rearing back at the information.
"Well yes, but you can also increase your daily allowance by researching more items."
I opened the chest, a spear, some shurikens, three recall potions, 19 torches, and 75 wood. Which caused me to research them all except the recall potions, I still wanted 17 more before I researched them.
Looking at my sharp copper shortsword, I decided to also research it for the Final Fract-I mean The Zenith later.
Pulling open my Duplication menu, I began to study it.
___
[Duplication Menu]
280/230
Weapons (2/566)
Armor (0/218)
Vanity (0/110)
Blocks (1/192)
Furniture (0/859)
Accessories (0/273
Equipment (0/140)
Consumables (0/87)
Tools (0/117)
Materials (1/951)
Miscellaneous
___
Huh, that's weird. Why is Miscellaneous uncounted? Oh well.
"Sub World Time allows you to alter how time flows here, how long each day is, how long you'll be staying here, and the time dilation between our two worlds."
"Wait, you know-" I started in curiosity as I mined the empty wood chest before getting interrupted.
"Before you ask, no one from either world can make the crossing like you can."
"Well shucks, then I guess there is no saving someone by transporting them here," I surmised in a joking-manner of tone.
"Yeah, you'd have better chances of removing the egg from a cake," He retorted. Giving me room to exit the little hole in the ground to explore further.
I guess that makes sense. Due to me not being from either world, I am basically a floating soul with godly potential. Cool, very cool.
"As I was saying- ah yes, Sub-World Weather," Andrew said, picking up where he left off.
"Sub-World Weather only really allows you to cap off the further progress of this world weather. It doesn't really grant you control."
"Then Personal Power allows you to summon townies as long as you meet their requirements."
I slowed down my march through the forest in confusion, Letting Andrew catch up as a result.
"So that's what it meant by [Alter NPC Appearance]," I said with wonder, "I'd honestly thought it would allow me to change how a npc looks!"
Andrew snickered at that, before the smile left his face.
With dead eyes, he summoned a simple wood hunting bow and a singular arrow before firing it with instinctive precision at an approaching green slime. I didn't see it due to it being around the bend of a tree.
After holding that position for a moment, Andrew unsummoned the wood bow and resumed his conversation like the pause never happened.
"No, that part allows you to summon certain townies like the Nurse or Armorer."
"Huh," I replied simply, taking in the information passively.
"Also, don't call us npc's. That's derogatory and it'll get you in a lot of trouble," Andrew said, giving a stern look as we walked.
I acquiesced. I'd rather not be a victim of the angler's shenanigans, or the nurse charging extra. Ugh.
As we we're about to approach the treeline, I suddenly felt a bit of fog lift from me, as the tiniest morsel of childish wonder had returned and I couldn't help but smile. Just as we breached it I saw a few scattered sunflowers gleaming golden from the sunlight.
"Ah, so that's what I felt," I said to myself, as I closed my eyes to find the "happy" status effect.
If only it was there.
Again, reading my thoughts, the system then revealed that I had two status effects currently on me.
First it was "Happy", increasing my move speed and decreasing enemy spawns. The other was "Hungry", which dropped my defense, damage, and attack speed. Ouch!
I summoned an apple I got from a random tree I chopped, biting into it I felt a veritable flood of energy flow into me. Like someone had hooked up a house generator to me for a second. The apple was at just the right amount of sweetness and tartness, making the next bites a thoughtless reaction.
"Whoa, what was in that apple, crack?" I said, eating core seed and stem as well.
"Hah ha, How do you know about crack with your age?" Andrew rhetorically asks.
I gave a nervous laugh, hoping that The Guide would read the room and not press any further. After a few silent moments where I found another chest in a nearby cave in a hill, Andrew began again.
"Unique Crafting is something beyond what I know. I know everything the past Hero of Legend has crafted, and I hope to remember what you craft as well."
Just as I was about to flip the latch on the chest, my hand slowed to a near stop before restarting the planned action.
"So, I can create anything, as long as I have the materials and a goal in mind?" I asked, not really knowing how he'll answer the question.
"Well yeah," Andrew said, simply, "sometimes you'll fail at it, consuming the materials, but when you succeed, you'll be able to craft it again without fail."
Outwardly, I nodded and hummed understanding. Inwardly, I was shaking in my neuronic bones. I already had the idea of crafting a mixed gear set of Shadow Scales and Tissue Samples, of forging bronze from copper and tin! There was so much I could do!
I was so preoccupied with my fantasies that I took the items from the chest without much thought. And decided to finally get back to Terraria basics.
Using the leftover wood from researching, I began to craft a wood bench. I tried to summon it in hand, much to my confusion when it didn't appear. I kept trying to will it in existence, something that Andrew thankfully noticed.
"If it's any kind of furniture, you'll need to summon it on the spot, not in your hands," he clarified.
Following his instructions, I pointed at a relatively flat area of ground and summoned the wood bench. Just like every other summoned item, it instantly appeared, a wooden thud the only remark of its sudden existence.
There I placed an empty bottle on it, watching as the moment my hand left the mason jar on the bench, transforming into a classical empty potion. This time I was no longer surprised.
Kneeling at the bench I began to summon some of the mushrooms I've collected, I began to craft lesser healing potions, which I simply let the system do by itself. Two empty mason jars appeared in my hands, before a massive amount of a data-moshing effect began to skew my perspective of the two bottles. However, it wasn't the sight of the bottles I was concerned about, it was the sudden sinking feeling in my occupied hands that drew the most of my attention.
It was strange to finally blink and to fully see two lesser healing potions in the third dimension in my adolescent hands. And honestly, seeing how easy it was to make items had my mind racing with its implications. Only the voice of my companion snapping out of the reverie.
"Heh, the Last Hero had the same reaction to crafting as well," he chuckled out, hands in pockets while leaning against the cave wall.
"You're so going to tell me all about that," I said, wonder still in my voice, "but please, continue explaining."
"Right-o!"
"Enemy Harvesting allows you to focus on certain parts of objects on an enemy in order to give you a higher chance of dropping that item."
"So if I aim at trying to get Queen Bee fur as a drop, I'll get it?"
. "I don't know why you'd want that, but sure," He said, with an instinctual shrug.
"Next, [Sub-World Infection]."
"Like [Sub-World Weather], there isn't much you can do with the power, all you can do is control in which direction the spirit fly throughout."
"Wait," I said, now crafting a wood hammer for later in the meantime, "what's stopping me from letting the world become fully corrupt?"
As I said that, Andrew's constant smirk dropped. A sudden, unnatural darkness filled the pit of his eye sockets as he looked not at my eyes but at my chest — at my soul. It felt like something cold and horrible arced up my legs and into my core of my being. I was frozen – unable to choose which fear response I wanted. Then came The Guide's voice, which held no life, no personality. It was like a doppelgänger had changed skins with the snarky man.
"You don't want to do that because you will never have the chance." And there was no further preamble.
Like a lightswitch, the usual brunette's appearance and personality resurfaced, and while it took a second for the smirk arrive, it did all the same.
While I sat there, nearly pissing my own shorts from such a horrifying presence unleashed.
"Now, where was I?" That Thing – I mean – Andrew rhetorically asked.
"Hold," I spoke, voice steady despite my current state.
"I almost pissed my pants."
———————————————————————
It took no time at all to start mining the nearby stone, dirt, and clay around me.
Unlike the game, there were no clean blocks. While it would be significantly easier to make a sphere in this world, if I placed down a dirt block, it'll try to assume a perfect square before gravity takes and make it slump down like an envious dad dropping their beer gut.
Also trying to leave a block suspended in midair is impossible now, with the airborne block slowly breaking down, before falling like sand below.
In the interim of exploring the cave of any ores, Andrew the Guide explained the last two menus in the journey tab.
Sub-World Difficulty is more or so kind of iffy. The best way I interpreted it was like a system similar to the Lineage System of Rain World. Where being in a general area – not specifically biome – and fighting and defeating enemies too much would increase the difficulty of the area. Thankfully, this can bleed off overtime if you leave the area alone or build a town there.
All the menu really does is give me the measurement, which direction it is currently going in, and any notable changes in the area.
Which means that if I want something interesting for crafting unique items then I'll have to slay out in a general area.
Another piece of wisdom given by Andrew was that I should be making another world at this moment. At first the thought had crossed my mind during the explanation, but I didn't want to be locked out from entering any world for another two years.
After a solid 4 hours of spelunking, I ended with a decent haul of ores and gemstones. Sitting at a bench and furnace I looked at my haul. 137 copper ore, 97 zinc ore, 103 lead ore, 45 iron ore, 37 tungsten ore, and 7 gold ore. I had 17 emeralds but 15 of them immediately went into crafting a hook.
Using a hook was just like the game, problem was that it was too much like the game. Sure if I grapple to a wall while falling to certain death will save me, but 17mph instantly from 120mph will still induce motion sickness.
Also cave bats? Absolute nightmare. Those bastards are way more accurate in their flying and are unnaturally aggressive. I've spent more time sealing up potential entrances and sitting down to let the Feral Bite fade away than getting actual progress done. Eventually I found that cave bats will gun for you the moment their echolocation spots you. Which I exploited by skewering them near the last second before they closed the distance. This gave me plenty of time to reorient myself.
First thing I did was I researched all the ores that were above 99 pieces. Which in turn allowed me to learn how the duplication worked in practice. At first, I was confused with what had a greater draw, which the system had helpfully explained.
[Max duplication points are increased based on level of item rarity. Duplicating costs are determined by the selected item rarity. Duplication point generation rate takes 24 hours outside of the Sub-World from zero to full.]
Now every item I pick up will display the item's rarity and its duplication cost. Like this duplicated spear I got early on.
___
Spear
White – 10 points
8 thrusting damage
4% critical chance
31 speed
6.5 knockback
___
Due to me re-obtaining it through duplication meant that whatever initial reforge present is forever gone. Which is alright in my eyes.
Just as I was about to spend all my Duplication Points into lead ore to upgrade my gear…
"Your first night arrives…" Andrew whispered, with too much of a dreaded omen.
"Okay, and?" I retorted tartly, genuinely confused as to why he is acting the way he is.
Andrew, who was previously making unknown counts and recalls with his fingers, now stares with tired finality at me.
"You know that the evil of this world awakens at this time?"
"It's just zombies and demon eyes," I replied, pulling out just enough lead ore to replace all my tools with and craft a full set of armor, "while we didn't make a house, they don't spawn underground."
Andrew shook his head with forced patience, patience you'd use when dealing with an ignorant child… Oh wait.
"Where do those zombies and demon eyes come and go when it's day time?"
I thought about it for a second, feeling my spatial awareness take a sobering feeling from the question. But I replied quickly before The Guide could add on to his question.
"Yeah, but I simply thought they followed the night wherever it went," I said, closing my eyes to equip the lead armor I made.
The first thing I noticed when equipping the armor was the weight, or lack thereof. Moving around without the armor was akin to moving around in styrofoam, basically weightless. However, the mental weight of 20 pounds of lead on my body and the thumping sound of my footsteps told me that the near lightless weight of the armor was another benefit of the system.
Same thing with the Demonic Lead Broadsword I crafted as well. It felt like it was a hard-foam sword but the sheer knowledge of it being lead gave it the ghost of it's weight.
"No," Andrew clarified, reaching an asking hand towards me while talking, "They spread out underground, then rise up as night falls."
Before I could ask what he wanted from me, he summoned a recall potion into his hand. And with a swift head tilt, he downed the bottle in three swallows. In an instant, Andrew disappeared in a flash of blue light that blinded me slightly from its suddenness.
However, when I came to, I heard a sound that I could've never been prepared for:
A sound of groaning, from a rotting throat too close behind me.
===============================
Thank you all for collecting my story! This is my first foray into a story this ambitious. While I have a lot of events in the story lined up already, I'm also curious as to what y'all want to see out of this story.
If you have spare power stones, throw them my way. Otherwise, all I really ask for is your opinion and continued support.
Ciao!