The Eater of Worlds has awakened!
I stepped aside as the Eater's head burst from the cavern wall, straight into a few dozen bouncing, piercing projectiles.
Today, I am a FUCKING WIZARD!382QuantumshardFeb 5, 2017View discussionThreadmarks To hell with me View contentQuantumshardFeb 5, 2017#10With the Eater of Worlds dead, I had hit my stride. Like the Eye, it too had been not-quite-right, but the differences weren't enough to make it dangerous enough to leave and try again later. Hell, I was feeling so good I smashed a few more orbs and summoned a second. That one didn't last long. I returned later and smashed every orb I could find.
*ping!*
Hidden quest complete
Beating a dead worm.
You don't just kill bosses, you farm them, and not in a humane way. PETA would not approve.
You have gained one level.
The Brain of C'thulhu was a bit of a pain, thanks to its teleportation. I'd actually have to retreat twice, once because the changes to its behavior had caught me by surprise, the second time because it seemed to anticipate my strategy and made things more difficult. But I grabbed some new weapons and adapted, and added its trophy to my wall and its XP to my sheet.
Despite my fears, I found Skeletron to be a pushover. The claw-swipes were hugely telegraphed, and I anticipated the skull's much faster spin-dash. I barely lost a quarter of my HP fighting him. Delving the dungeon was almost pathetically easy, water bolt working beautifully in the tight quarters. It took a bit of time, but I finally found the answer to my trap problems. The Mechanic, an NPC who sold trap components. Safely in my inventory and tested at home, the Mechanical Lens clearly displayed the traps that awaited me as I moved deeper underground. But just to keep everything in order, I purchased a fishing rod from her and first went to the beach, keeping an eye out for goblin scouts.
A few slightly peaceful days and one frantic battle against a horde of goblins later, I descended into the darkness, harvesting ore as I went with the shark I was using as a pickaxe. Yes, really. It was slow, tedious work, and I crammed all my spare points into Int just to help prevent getting lost underground, even once I'd found a compass and depth meter. Soon I found the Goblin Tinkerer and was wearing ROCKET BOOTS! Not much air time in them, but they were hella fun.
The jungle was a nightmare, but an important step. I'd been forced to fall back on the habit of building barricades, fortifications, and safe houses wherever I went, just to deal with the endless stream of killer bees, giant killer bees, man-eating vines, and toxic slimes. The honey was absolutely delicious, the taste stronger than anything else I'd eaten since being dragged off Earth, and I'd gorged myself on it the first time I found a pool. The queen bee, once I'd finished picking stingers out of my ass, obligingly dropped dozens of bottles of the stuff, and I blew through it all in a day or two, burrowing my way through the underground like mad, powered by magic potions and a sugar rush. The amount of gems and precious metals I'd dug up was absurd.
By now, the portal was half-done. A halo of diamond-studded gold floated high above, and standing stones of tungsten and amber marked the outer perimeter. A solid sphere of meteorite hovered directly above the center, wrapped in bands of Crimtane and Demonite. All that was left was the Hellstone, and that meant going to hell.
The biggest danger of going to hell was triggering the arrival of the wall of flesh early. By my estimate, I'd explored less than a quarter of the underground, and though there were plenty of unexplored areas, I'd found enough to craft a spiffy pair of boots that let me walk on lava without harm, and another pair to greatly boost my speed. The mobs were a little more dangerous and mining hellstone itself was a pain, even with temporary lava immunity. I had, by what I usually went by in the game, everything I needed to fight the wall of flesh.
The only problem was that Terraria was originally 2d. So I had no idea how the wall of flesh was supposed to work in a 3d world. Building a long platform to fight a running battle likely wouldn't work, but trying to floor the entire bottom of the island could take months.
I descended loaded for bear, with enough explosives to core the world, several weapons, and all the potions I could possibly need. I'm not taking any chances.
The first thing that struck me was the heat. It was almost a solid barrier I had to push through. Breathing didn't come easy, and I resolved to bring along some water on my next trip. Small grace that the shadow armor I was wearing remained cool thanks in some inherent quality.
I rappelled down, landing on one of the obsidian buildings that dotted hell. It was never explained who built them, unless there was a dev post somewhere I hadn't read. But that wasn't important right now. I broke in, looted what I could, and made my way to the basement. I drank a spelunker potion, looked for the sparkles, tore up the floor, and dropped some bombs in. I tossed down a dozen more, quaffed an Obsidian Skin Potion as insurance, and jumped in. Hellstone released small amounts of lava as it was mined, and I knew I was surrounded by lakes of lava on all sides. I didn't want to find out the hard way if there were changes to the environment as well that might prevent me from escaping the usual ways, and I went back up rather than chase the deepest deposits. There was plenty of Hellstone to dig, no sense playing it risky.
A hellbat swooped down, and Night's Edge swatted it out of the air. I didn't want to spend any more time here than necessary, so after carefully testing the surface of the lava lake to make sure things here behaved as they should, I skipped building a pathway between the islands of ash and ran/jetted around in a crude search pattern until I found the next large deposit close to the surface.
Lava slimes and more hellbats interrupted my work, and I always made sure to have a stable place to stand, since I could only reliably lava-walk on still liquid and my explosives were opening pits for lava to drain into. I wonder if the Nether in Minecraft was as uncomfortable as this place? But if Terraria accessories worked there, most of the danger was gone.
It was a few minutes later that the first demon appeared.
"Observe!"
*ping!*
Demon
HP: 120/120
Stats: ???
The scythes it cast came out faster than normal, but things like that really weren't a surprise at this point. I sidestepped the attack and pegged the demon with musket fire, a few hits were all it took. Coins fell, but that was all. I went back to work.
"Observe."
"Observe."
"Observe."
Plain demons, one after the other, and I shot them down. I found one hovering among a group of pillars near the ceiling, and threw a torrent of waterbolts at it, hitting it with a dozen ricochets. I turned away and went back to mining. If I'd kept watching, I'd have noticed the very small doll that was hanging from his belt, rather than his feet. It fell unnoticed, and sank into the lava.
My heart skipped a beat at the roar, and I tried to cover my ears.
I jetted out of the pit I was digging in to see a fleshy mass sprouting from the lava lake. It expanded like rising bread, cracked, and exuded feelers that whipped at the air. A cyst burst, and revealed a massive eye that snapped to focus on me.
"STATUS!"
Name: T͂̑̏̍ͩͩ҉̦a̭̩͓̱̍ͦͮ̚͜k̳̤͎̟̀e̸͍̻̤̫̭̒͒ͣ̆ͩ̂n̘̊ ̗̗̗̞̋ͥ̀ͅa̱s̫̯͈̞͋̅̊̽ͨ̋ ̤̺͙p͏͖̩͉̜̩͎ā͉̫̋̅̏̀y͕̜ͯ̍m̬̞̘ͧͦ͋͌̍̚̚e̙̥̳̾̊̍͊̃ͦn̠̻͔̳͚ͣͯ̔̐ͬͮt̷͉͌̀
Class: Gamer
Level: 35
HP 720 (220 + 500)
MP 630/630
Str 70 (20 + 50)
Dex 66 (16 + 50)
Vit 72 (22 + 50)
Int 42
Wis 53
Luk 51
Unspent points: 20
WhatdoIdowhatdoIdo…
The Wall of Flesh began to expand in all directions. It wouldn't sweep across the world. It would grow to fill it.
ohshitmustmovefasterfasterfaster
Dex>>>36 (86)
I began scarfing down potions. The Wall roared again and continued to expand. A maw formed, and I shot it. Stupid! Wrong target! A laser from the gigantic eye hit my shoulder and spun me around. I replied in kind with the few hellfire arrows I'd picked up so far, but the tendrils got in the way and took the hit. The explosions shredded them, but as I turned and moved for a better vantage point, I could see new ones growing. Another thing it wasn't supposed to do.
-20HP
That's all? That's not too-
-20HP
-20HP
-20HP
I ducked behind a wall and kicked myself for not remembering just how fast and accurate those lasers were. But the Wall was expanding, and I came out shooting. Arrows wouldn't do if the tendril-things regenerated. But that's why I'd brought a minishark. The toothy gun spun up and meteor shells punched clean through the tendrils, peppering the enormous eye with holes. The eye glared at me, and the entire Wall shook with rage as the damage began piling up. Tendrils lashed aimlessly, smashing through walls and shattering hills of ash. I fired in bursts, staying on the move. At least in 3d, the buildings here helped instead of hindered.
I drank my first healing potion as my HP hit the halfway point, and moved on instead of firing back. The wall was expanding faster now, oozing over everything in sight, a living tide of pulsing fat and angry gristle. Then I decided to really piss it off. I hadn't used these before, since they were uncontrollable and risked hitting a doll-carrying demon, but that wasn't an issue now.
Beenades rolled out by the dozen, and the effect of so many was impressive, the swarm released momentarily blotting out my view of the wall. Soft and fleshy, the wall and its components were soon covered in thousands of little bites and stings, and I emptied my stock of them. Bloodshot and teary, the Wall's eyes were focused on me. So I shot them again. A few laser hits didn't break my aim, and no matter what damage I took, I didn't let up. I didn't care to see what other surprises this thing might have.
Time blurred into a cycle of dodging, healing, and retaliation. I emptied my minishark into the Wall and fell back on arrows. Hellfire, unholy…I was down to jester arrows, white streaks punching clean through the maddened tendrils when the Eye I'd been hammering on burst.
All of Hell went silent.
Spreading outwards from the broken organ, lines of necrosis snaked across the surface of the Wall, causing tendrils to detach and great cysts to form and burst. Meat rotted and fell, and the smell, as horrid as the jungle's honey had been sweet overpowered the heat and sulfur to make me gag. I saw half-formed bones crack and turn to powder, unnameable organs curl upon themselves, and folds of flesh squeeze as if trying to keep its innards from escaping.
It took time to die. Long minutes for the sheer bulk of it to completely fall apart. But the Wall of Flesh was dead.
*PING!*
World quest complete!
The wall of Flesh has been destroyed!
The ancient spirits of light and dark have been released!
You have gained 4 levels!
You have gained 1 core skill point!
…I'm going to sleep for a month after this. I may have to swap the dryad into my room. Pixelated or not, staring at boobs is the closest thing I have to therapy right now.
After hunkering down until potion sickness wore off and I could heal myself once more, I went to claim my prize. A cage of Crimstone in the shape of a ribcage hung in the air, and I knew there were things I wanted in there. A pwnhammer, a gigantic blade. Potions. A trophy. A badge with an arrow emblem.
I tapped the recall button on my cell phone and returned home.
- - - - - - - - - -
I was laying in bed, pillow over my face, unable to sleep. I wanted to, damn the risk, but I had no idea what changes the world would undergo now that it was in hardmode, and the walls around me were no guarantee of safety. I tried to spend at least an hour pretending to sleep, hoping that whatever part of my brain the perk altered would get some relief from the attempt. Didn't people tend to go insane and die from sleep deprivation? I just hope there weren't any side-effects when the temporary perk was lost.
I pulled myself out of bed, re-armed, and took the short walk to the portal construction site. I was using ore, not bars, so there was no need to refine the Hellstone. I double-checked the schematics, and slotted the ore into the proper place. I had just barely enough.
*ping!*
Second gateway complete!
Hey, you actually survived! I'm impressed!
You have gained 3 levels.
Bitch.
"Status."
Name: T͂̑̏̍ͩͩ҉̦a̭̩͓̱̍ͦͮ̚͜k̳̤͎̟̀e̸͍̻̤̫̭̒͒ͣ̆ͩ̂n̘̊ ̗̗̗̞̋ͥ̀ͅa̱s̫̯͈̞͋̅̊̽ͨ̋ ̤̺͙p͏͖̩͉̜̩͎ā͉̫̋̅̏̀y͕̜ͯ̍m̬̞̘ͧͦ͋͌̍̚̚e̙̥̳̾̊̍͊̃ͦn̠̻͔̳͚ͣͯ̔̐ͬͮt̷͉͌̀
Class: Gamer
Level: 42
HP 730 (230 + 500)
MP 630/630
Str 70 (20 + 50)
Dex 86 (36 + 50)
Vit 73 (23 + 50)
Int 42
Wis 53
Luk 51
Unspent points: 35
Unspent Core skill points: 1
Ok. Let's get the bonuses and hopefully not make any more stupid mistakes.
Int>>>50
*ping!*
A new skill has been created by Int being raised to 50
Mana affinity
MP regeneration rate increased by 10%
Enemy magic resistance reduced by 5%
MP costs of mana skills reduced by 5%
Spell effects increased by 10%
And for the next…I'd be fighting at long-range for now on, so Dex was king.
Dex>>>50
*ping!*
A new skill has been created by Dex being raised to 50
A leaf on the Wind
Movement speed increased by 10%
Rough terrain movement penalties reduced by 25%
10% faster reaction speed
Can inflict critical hits
Unspent points: 13
Let's save those until I see what I'm up against next world.
"Skills."
*ping!*
You may purchase one of the following core skill upgrades.
Gamer's Body (Level 2)
User's natural healing rate includes regeneration to the body's ideal state, replacing all lost limbs, organs and assorted bits perfectly.
A must have, once I lose the 'Blessing of Steve,' especially since I could then be crippled or de-limbed as a result of injuries.
Gamer's Mind (Level 2)
User gains eidetic memory and a vastly increased mental storage capacity.
Cool, but not immediately essential.
Logophage (Level 2)
Absorb instructional information from electronic and magical storage mediums.
If I ever visit a world with higher tech, this will get me so many skills.
Observe (level 2)
Display information that is commonly known to the world or what could be derived from extended observation and testing.
Aaaaand the skill finally becomes something other than absolutely useless.
It wasn't a very hard choice in the end. None of the other options were immediately useful, and I had no idea how long the 'Blessing of Steve' would last.
I suited up, gathered supplies, and tapped the gate.
*ping!*
Gateway (Terraria)
Leads to Minecraft, ???
I considered moving on to see what the third world had in store, but I wanted to stay ahead of the difficulty curve. I grabbed what I needed and I headed back to Minecraft. Observe told me that no time had passed in my absence, and I took a day to enlarge my garden. Then I went looking for buckets. I had a date with a dragon.
Finding the Enderdragon meant finding a Stronghold, but that required entering the Nether. Easy enough, with a little obsidian. The transfer was a little disorienting, and it pinged as a hidden quest, but the reward wasn't enough to get me a level. I really should have done this earlier. My Lava Waders worked in this world as well, and it didn't take long for me to find a Nether Fortress. The local mobs were nothing to worry about, practically comedic compared to what I'd faced so far. I butchered every pigman, magma slime and ghast I encountered with no trouble.
Once I'd carved my way up to the fortress battlements, I saw my first real hint of what life would be like without 'Easy Mode.' A wither skeleton was stalking towards me, and he didn't have a single right angle on him. Obsidian blade in a two-handed grip, he was an oversized human skeleton, cracked and blackened, wreathed in wisps of smoke. I put a line of stone across the bridge at head-height and stepped back.
He bent down and walked beneath it without pausing.
A magic missile slammed into his leg and he staggered, then I pummeled him into the ground with waterbolts until he shattered. Why no, I was not going to get into a swordfight with him. I knew how to chop up zombies, but that was it. I had the sneaking suspicious the skeletons around here knew how to use their blades, and I did not. Even the Gamer power didn't let me become an amazing duelist by poking things repeatedly.
I collected some bones and a Wither Skull. One of three I'd need to summon the boss. Stepping out of the tunnel, I saw that collecting the other two would be no problem. Walking the walls of the fortress, wither skeletons stopped to turn at look at me as one. I stopped counting at fifty. Floating above them like torches, the flames of a few dozen Blazes began growing more intense. A barrage of fireballs came my way, and the horde surged forwards.
Like always, the overworld was perfectly peaceful in the absence of mobs. I left the portal burnt and bloody, and dropped the sack of skulls in a chest by the door, collecting all the spare food I had. At a suitable hill, I tossed an Eye of Ender into the air, carefully noting which way it flew. With a pillar of glowstone built at my feet, I built another an hour later after arriving at the distant point of the landscape that was in-line with the path of the eye. Then, half-a-day's walk in a different direction, I repeated the process. Triangulation was a beautiful thing. It was still a long walk to the stronghold, and quite a bit of digging was involved.
I also had to run around in circles and murder a lot of endermen for their eyes, and they were all looking far more organic this time around. Like a emaciated human that had been stretched out on a torture rack, with the limbs all out of proportion. I still shudder when I remember what they do with their jaws when they scream like that. But by past experience or just having a sword overpowered beyond anything Minecraft had, they didn't scare me quite so much anymore and teleport spam couldn't save them.382QuantumshardFeb 5, 2017View discussionThreadmarks Not quite so much fun anymore View contentQuantumshardFeb 5, 2017#12This portal was the most uncomfortable I've gone through so far. A ping announced the completion of a hidden quest, and I arrived underground. I drank my potions, tore my way out of the ground, then cut a two-by-two hole in the ground, and poured two buckets of water in. Then I drew sixteen buckets of water out. Ha! At least one aspect of game physics was still being followed. I poured water as I went, turning swaths of the ground hostile to the natives. Colonialism, ho!
The first sign that the dragon was present was when an explosion scalded me, and and there was an acidic taste in the air that crisped my nose hairs. Once the ringing in my head stopped I dodged a second fireball and rolled behind a block-slope. The Enderdragon was completely silent in flight, and it…glitched…from moment to moment, going from blocky and slow to sinuous and much harder to see against the starless sky.
I slapped down a campfire and a heart lantern. The Enderdragon wheeled around as I broke for the closest pillar, but I didn't waste the ammo when I had a clear shot. Instead I ducked, raised a blockade of blocks that absorbed the dragon's breath, and then dived away as it glitched and a tail-slap annihilated my barrier. As the blocky-dragon circled in a lazy arc, Tiger Climbing Gear brought me to the top of the pillar in seconds, and I lobbed a sticky bomb over the lip and onto the metal cage that protected the crystal.
Nails on a chalkboard was the closest way to describe it. The entire End shook slightly, and the speed of the dragon's glitching increased. But now I was on top of the pillar, and had a clear line of sight to the other crystals. And my ever-trusty space gun had excellent accuracy, tearing into crystals one after the other.
The dragon roared and dove at me, and now I unloaded on him with the minishark. I threw myself off the pillar as the dragon bodyslammed it, claws scrabbling for purchase on the obsidian. The head, now a purplish wedge with catfish-like barbels, snaked over the edge to find me clinging to the side of the pillar, and I fired at point-blank range. Tiny sparks and shattered scales told me of a row of crit after crit.
The jaw opened wide, and I let myself fall. The acid breath followed me downwards, but I pointed to the side and a grappling hook yanked me away. I raised another barrier, poked my head out, and started shooting. The dragon withdrew, and I hopped onto the now-platform, building as I circled the pillar. The dragon threw itself off and circled around, a target I couldn't resist. It charged and I put the pillar between us again. The dragon reached almost entirely around the pillar with slapping tail and snapping jaws, but I'd moved upwards this time. It saw me just in time to get a snout-full of bees.
Really, those things are just too much fun not to use.
I jumped from the pillar and left some sticky dynamite behind. The explosion knocked the dragon loose, and it clawed futilely for purchase. It hit the ground, hard, while my featherfall potion let me circle him for once, pouring meteor rounds into the fallen beast. It rose, stumbled, and cried out.
The explosion was beautiful and blinding.
*ping!*
World quest complete.
The Enderdragon lies slain.
You have gained 1 core skill point.
You have gained 1 level.
Only one? Well, I basically backtracked to a lower level encounter with high-level gear. I was starting to slow down in the rate of gaining levels, wasn't I?
I retrieved the orbs the dragon dropped and approached the portal leading out. On a pillar of bedrock, a dragon egg sat.
"Observe."
*ping!*
Ender Dragon Egg
Will teleport away if you attempt to mine it.
Can be collected if mined with a piston.
No known use.
Ok, that was info I remembered from the wiki.
"Skills."
Gamer's Body Level Max was grayed out. I couldn't purchase it yet, for some reason. After a little thought, I purchased the second level of 'Observe.'
"Observe!"
*ping!*
Ender Dragon Egg
Will teleport away if you attempt to mine it.
Can be collected if mined with a piston.
Can be collected if teleportation is blocked with torches.
Range of teleportation is up to seven blocks vertically and fifteen blocks horizontally.
Has no known use within the world of Minecraft.
Huh, that's…wait a tick. 'Within the world of Minecraft?' Is this the skill giving me a hint, or just using more words to say the same thing? Either way, I dropped down a huge grid of torches, punched and collected the egg, and made ready to leave. There was probably more things to find here, if I remembered correctly, but I really didn't like the way that the number of Endermen had tripled in the last few minutes. That, and this place gave me the creeps.
I left the End behind. No message played out as I left, though I did get the intense feeling I was being watched…
- - - - - - - - - -
"Observe!"
*ping!*
Wither Skull
Placing three of these on a T-shaped array of four soul sand will summon the Wither.
"Observe!"
*ping!*
The Wither is…
I sat in my first house, going over everything I could think of. It turned out the improved Observe skill was pretty handy, reminding me of recipes I'd forgotten, mostly. But one piece of info stood out over all the rest.
*ping!*
Blessing of Steve.
Blah blah blah…
This is a temporary skill.
Yeah…
This skill will be removed after moving to the fourth world.
Huh. I still had a grace period, and I did want every little advantage I could get. I was feeling pretty good about myself, but I still stocked up as usual before heading to the portal. Let's see where we end up.
I was shoved out roughly into an open field, surrounded by thick forest on all sides. Nothing stood out, nothing unusual that might have given away the identity of the world. Nothing except for a small, wooden crate. It took one look at the items inside to know where I was.
*ping!*
Factorio
Like Minecraft, but automated.
Kind of like Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri too, if you substituted biters for mind worms.
0/1 World quests completed.
0/??? hidden quests completed
Time remaining: 364 days, 11 hours.
God dammit.
I had a pretty good idea what the book would say even before I opened it. Yep. In this world, the portal was the win-condition, launching the satellite. And that would take a lot of fucking time and work. I wasn't working from a bird's-eye view, which would make planning a bitch. I also worried that even a year wouldn't be enough time. But this was still considered 'easy mode' which apparently didn't preclude the possibly of going stark raving mad from the isolation. I needed to do this quickly and efficiently, and I had to teach myself a lot of things, something I'd managed to do a grand total of never in my life.
"Status."
*ping!*
I reached out and tapped the screen.
Name: T͂̑̏̍ͩͩ҉̦a̭̩͓̱̍ͦͮ̚͜k̳̤͎̟̀e̸͍̻̤̫̭̒͒ͣ̆ͩ̂n̘̊ ̗̗̗̞̋ͥ̀ͅa̱s̫̯͈̞͋̅̊̽ͨ̋ ̤̺͙p͏͖̩͉̜̩͎ā͉̫̋̅̏̀y͕̜ͯ̍m̬̞̘ͧͦ͋͌̍̚̚e̙̥̳̾̊̍͊̃ͦn̠̻͔̳͚ͣͯ̔̐ͬͮt̷͉͌̀
Class: Gamer
Level: 43
HP 730 (230 + 500)
MP 1020/1020
Str 70 (20 + 50)
Dex 100 (50 + 50)
Vit 73 (23 + 50)
Int 68
Wis 53
Luk 51
Unspent points: 0
I dismissed the screen, pulled the burner extractor and stone furnace out of the crate and set out to find some ore.
- - - - - - - - - -
"I moved sixteen tons, of number nine coal…"
- - - - - - - - - -
"Slave to the new black gold, there's a heartbeat under my skin…"
- - - - - - - - - -
"Oh, Iiii've been working on this conveeeyor belt, aaall the live-long…Observe?…past two daaaaays. Oh Iiii've been stocking up on cooopper wiiire 'cause the devs padded out the construction process with fiddly bits…"
- - - - - - - - - -
"The iron gear is connected to the…iron plate. The inserter is connected to the conveyor belt…and that somehow makes science happen. Now, we research GUNS!"
- - - - - - - - - -
The creature was a simple one, knowing only what instincts nature had programmed it with. Gather food, protect the hive, that sort of thing. So it stopped scraping at the soil as an unknown sound reached its ears. Growing louder. Getting closer. There was something else, the cry of an animal it didn't recognize.
On instinct, the biter gathered with others of its kind, all buzzing with agitation. The cry sounded out once again, and the sound became a roar.
"SUUUUUCK MYYY DIIIIICK-"
A mass of metal crashed out of the forest, knocking over trees as it went. The biters swarmed forwards, driven to defend the hive. A thunderous roar reduced a rearing biter to a fine mist and the swarm shrieked in sympathetic pain as their spawner-mother-hive was grievously injured. The first biter to reach the intruder raised its talons…
"III'M AAA TAAAAANK!"
And chitin was pulverized under the weight of industry.
The hive was brought low, its organs and processes looted for valuable chemicals. The few survivors were either pulped by treads or armor-piercing rounds and the intruder made a bloody figure-eight in the ruins of the hive. The alien beast cackled madly as he withdrew, leaving nothing but destruction in his wake, and the understanding of why so many SI's go straight for the 'loot, burn and pave over everything' approach.
- - - - - - - - - -
Portable fusion plants drove exo-skeletal enhancement, integrated point-defenses drove off maddened wildlife with volleys of laser fire before fang and claw could reach the shields and armor plating that protected the human within. A halo of orbiting sentries fired upon anything that dared close upon their creator, and those that did come within arm's reach met their end upon Night's Edge, finding the blade worked on alien beasts just as well as the undead.
The latest swarm that had boiled out of the wilderness had come from a recently established hive, one he would clear out on the next sweep through the wilderness. For now, the forges were growing hungry, and a new rail line would need to be laid to meet the demand. The border defenses, a mix of cannon, laser, and flame, would suffice to handle things in his absence.
At a gesture, a fleet of robots took flight. He walked, eschewing a vehicle to direct the machine's operation like a mad conductor, sweeping his arms in grandiose gestures that had a path of concrete and steel roll out before him like a red carpet. He arrived among a field of mixed copper and iron, irked at the inefficiency of needing filters to have everything arrive in its proper place. A train appeared out of nothing. Power lines were spun like webs. Turrets were placed and loaded. Gears turned and engines hummed. Fuel was loaded and the man stepped on board, letting the new train carry him back to the primary base.
Home was a wooden cabin. Inside, a plain bed. Outside, a farm and a flock of chickens. It was surrounded by concrete walls higher than the trees that were once there, and three mechanical gates flanked by turrets was the entrance.
The walls themselves stood in the shadow of a rocket silo, fed components day and night by a long line of assemblers, conveyor belts, and manipulators. The noise had long ago stopped bothering the only human on the planet to hear it, it was only so much information now, one more way of monitoring the progress of his work. Today, that work would come to a conclusion. Vast fields of resources has been stripped clean, lines of transport stretched from horizon to horizon. But with the addition of a single component, the satellite was complete, inserted, and with an ear-rending roar that ticked off a few HP, the nameless mechanic watched his rocket fly.
*ping!*
World quest complete!
Rockets away!
You have gained 2 levels!
You have gained 1 core skill point!
An aperture opened in the air above the now-empty silo. Will practiced ease, the man retrieved his bed and any unique items he desired to return with, and ignored the ??? in favor of completing work left undone before moving on.
*ping!*
Congratulations!
You have cleared all Factorio world quests.
You have 214 days remaining to explore this world and complete its hidden quests.
Remember that you may distribute this time towards another world if you so choose.
How long was that?
He stepped through the portal.
I t was a familiar place. People who were not people walked back and forth aimlessly. They spoke without words, little bubbles in the air depicting meaningless, random things. From habit, he went to his own room, placed his bed, and sat down.
"Observe."
Terraria
Like Minecraft, but a little more difficult.
Ok, a lot more difficult.
Seriously, you have to fight C'thulhu's wandering body parts and then kill his big brother.
1/2 World quests completed.
7/??? hidden quests completed
Time remaining: 276 days, 2 hours.
How long had he been alone?
He didn't know. The numbers were jumbled in his mind. He just placed his face in his hands and cried.371QuantumshardFeb 5, 2017View discussionThreadmarks Making progress View contentQuantumshardFeb 5, 2017#13The sky was dark despite the sun being directly overhead, and wind rose for the first time in this unreal world. At the center of the chaos hovered a blackened ribcage, spine-tail whipping through the air, three skulls with jaws wide and crying out. The creature announced its birth with a wave of energy that shattered the land around it, and empty eye sockets turned to focus on the one living creature in sight.
The human met the Wither's gaze without blinking, and responded to the challenge with fire, magic, and steel.
*ping!*
I accepted the skill point without a word. There was no one here but me, and my own voice was starting to sound alien.
All the level MAX core skills were still grayed out, and I selected the last level two skill I'd yet to take, Logophage.
*ping!*
Congratulations!
You have cleared all Minecraft world quests.
You have 319 days remaining to explore this world and complete its hidden quests.
Remember that you may distribute this time towards another world if you so choose.
I never wanted to see this place again, but my stat-fortified mind reminded me that none of the three worlds I had access to were worth spending extra time in. And the Moon Lord needed to die before I moved on. If the…glitches…turned video game mobs into lethal foes, I didn't even want to consider what the removal of 'easy mode' would do to a being stated to be on par with C'thulhu. For now, Minecraft was my breadbasket - it was easiest and safest to grow food here. I'd cut ties to this world as soon as I had a better place to live.
Returning to Terraria, I began stocking up. I dimly recalled that there was a huge jump in difficulty after the wall of flesh was defeated, and I needed to…I needed to…
Damn. I've been here too long. Even with Gamer's Mind, I'd forgotten too many things. I needed…arrows from the sky. Holy arrows. Yes. Unicorn horns. From the hallow. A bow from the hallow…I couldn't remember the name, but I absolutely needed it. Hallowed Mimics. Fuck. Sheer nerd rage at the annoyance of fighting those damn things was enough to jog my memory.
Get the bow, get lots of arrows, create an arena, and run deep underground if a boss appears before I was ready. Yes. Factorio's isolation had taken a lot out of me. I hoped I remembered enough to get through this.
Even if something was nagging me at the back of my mind. Something didn't quite add up…
- - - - - - - - - -
The desert was beautiful. Pale yellow sand was being transformed into a sparkling white expanse, and even pixelated the plants here looks more vibrant, more alive. Beneath the surface, the effect was even more pronounced, light dancing on sandstone walls speckled with pink and blue crystals. The effect was muted somewhat by the knowledge that the 'holy' creatures here would do their damnest to kill me in ways no different from common undead. Hell, the two would happily team up against me.
I followed the path of altered ground and headed deeper. I passed crystal formations that I collected for later, and began carving out choke points, small redoubts, and reliable pathways so I wouldn't stumble in the middle of a heated battle. Once deep enough, I began carving out an arena and put down Water Candles to encourage mob spawning. Then I remembered I had to go around smashing demon altars. I'd do that later.
Returning home exhausted, I sorted my loot. Even the more common hard mode mobs were much tougher than usual, and I needed to upgrade my equipment. Especially since I needed to fight a hallowed mimic. I hadn't found one during my first trip. That was bad, because I needed the equipment to fight the next group of bosses. Good, because I wasn't ready for the fight.
- - - - - - - - - -
Between Peace Candles and Potions of calming…I was still running like mad, being chased by a swarm of wraiths that floated through walls and floors without following any kind of real pattern. Yeah, I remembered these guys. Assholes. The next few targets came into view, and a I fired off a swarm of water bolts in the hope that the bouncing projectiles would keep the wraiths at bay for a few moments. I leapt as I switched to the pwnhammer, bringing it down hard on the first altar.
*Ping!*
Your world has been blessed with Palladium!
I spun and swung again.
*Ping!*
Your world has been blessed with Orichalcum!
In all directions, the dark tunnels of the corruption were now lit by the glowing eyes of what must have been dozens of wraiths.
*Ping!*
Your world has been blessed with Titanium!
*Ping!*
*Ping!*
*Ping!*
And one mo-GRAH!
-140HP
A wraith had risen up from the floor beneath me, extending a smoky tendril that ghosted though my leg and left it numb.
Time to go.
I stumbled away towards a cliff and jumped off, reaching for my Cell Phone.
There was more red than black in the tunnel leading down, enough glowing eyes to dye long stretches of the walls in a bloody hue. I concentrated on pushing my MP through the device as fast as I could, and arrived in my room rolling upside down, passing through the Nurse, and banging my shins on a work bench hard enough to feel it through my armor.
I picked myself off the floor, waved my hand through pixelated boobs and immediately felt a little better. Then I had the nurse heal me.
A few floors down was the embarkation room. Labeled chests sat full of everything I needed to survive outside of my home. Weapons, armor, potions, gear… Without Terraria's minimap, hunting for ore would be a chore. I passed through the antechamber, dumping the few things I'd collected on my last trip to be sorted later, and went straight for the potion chest. A small sign I'd placed a long time ago reminded me that there were hardmode materials to collect if I wanted some of the higher-tier potions, a few of which I considered essential for endgame boss fights.
I restocked the usual. Swiftness, regeneration, ironskin…I had a long few days of hunting ore ahead of me, and that mean spelunker and mining potions, along with hunter and danger sense so I wouldn't bungle my way into a dangerous situation. On my way out, I stopped by the greenhouse and harvested everything, replanted the seeds, sorted the extra, and put the herbs in a provider chest. A single robot trundled out from it's port and collected them, moving them to the alchemy room.
I'd discovered that Factorio tech worked in Terraria just fine, but the infrastructure needed to actually run it on the island was prohibitively space-consuming. That and it was a question of scale, the ore deposits here rarely larger than in the teens, while Factorio resource nodes were measured in tens of thousands of units. And they worked exactly the same - a unit of Factorio copper ore in my hand was no larger from those which I'd harvested here. On the plus side, I would never run out of torches. Ever. Downside, it would mean dozens of trips and a lot of waiting to collect the resources needed to start industry up here, since no time passed when I was not in a world which meant no material being collected and refined. Sure, this meant I could eventually coat the land in laser turrets, but they'd need a hell of a lot of steam engines to power, and I'd quickly found out that Terraria mobs will target my infrastructure. Factorio had no flying or burrowing enemies, and that was not hassle I wanted to take the time to account for.
So as great as it would've been to have a network of roboports ferrying ore around, I'd have to do this all manually. I stepped into the airlock between my base and the main shaft I'd dug out beneath it, drank the first bunch of potions, confirmed they'd taken effect, and headed out.
Now that hardmode ores had been generated, my first priority was upgrading my gear. Armor to survive and pickaxes to harvest the next tier of ore. Weapons weren't an immediate concern, since I had no intention of getting into fights.
I spent the next few days worming through the underground, chasing pockets of ore, only returning to the surface when my pack was full or my rations or potions had run out. A belated realization and a mad dash through the Crimson saw even more altars shattered and more ore generated, followed by a bit of backtracking to collect new ore in old areas. I worked my way down all the way back to hell over the next few weeks, staying far, far underground on the one night I got a message that a mechanical boss was spawning. Fortunately, they followed the rules and didn't chase me down. Though when I returned home, there were gashes in the landscape and the few machines I'd left on the surface had been completely destroyed. The change of behavior was far more disturbing than the loss of the convenience my Factorio-tech offered.
- - - - - - - - - -
It had been…almost a month, I think. I'd harvested vast stocks of hardmode ores, and collected enough mob loot to craft ammunition to last for the forseeable future. I'd forged keys from Souls of Light that allowed me to summon those fucking hallowed mimics, and two frantic fights later, had the weapon I needed.
That left me standing in a wide depression, carved from the surface and carefully stocked with everything I might need. Statues to spawn hearts and stars, a few dozen ultra-bright campfires in a perfectly symmetrical grid, Heart Lanterns high above and radiating regenerative energy. And though I loathed the things on general principle, every dart trap I could find was wired to a network of switches and aligned in carefully-plotted lines of fire.
I wore a freshly-crafted full suit of titanium armor, obsidian shield in one hand, Daedalus Stormbow in the other. Holy Arrows and a Magic Quiver would provide the firepower I needed, with my trusty minishark as backup. I jumped and hovered in place, the wings still feeling awkward even after training my new flying skill.
The sun had set. It was time.
Potions drunk. Furniture-based buffs activated. Minions summoned.
I raised the item in my hand and shattered it.
*ping!*
The Destroyer has awoken!
The Destroyer's red silhouette glared at me as it popped into existence…the tail end in a scrunched-up mass that slowly unkinked as the pixelated tube that was its body rushed forwards and missed me by meters. I smirked despite my nerves, and raised the stormbow. Arrows rained from the sky, and where they hit, stars followed and punched clean through the boss's body. There were no wounds and no reaction.
But observe told me that its HP was going down.
The first of the probes detached and fired at me. I cut it down with a hail of bullets, and switched back to the bow, aiming for the most vertically-aligned section of the body so that the falling projectiles would pierce and damage as many segments as possible. I sidestepped the head easily as it tried to slam into me, and I tagged a switch that sent a dozen heavy darts into the fight, each hit doing a little damage.
I flew above the next attempt at a headbutt, raking the body with meteor shells. Being in 3-d meant the Destroyer wouldn't bunch up quite as much as I liked, but it was fine. Whatever the 'glitches' were that made things a little more real, they weren't happening here, and the Destroyer showed no signs of real intelligence.
I actually felt a little bit disappointed.
…Now I really knew I'd been stuck here too long.
- - - - - - - - - -
I left the arena with prizes in tow. The trophy went on my wall, the hallowed bars into my forge, and the Souls of Might turned my minishark into a MEGASHARK. I giggled. I couldn't help it. Silliness aside, once past the mechanical bosses the megashark would be my go-to weapon for Terraria's hardmore.
The very next day the steampunker arrived, and I spent the rest of the daylight paving my arena with asphalt to move around faster. I'd need the speed for the next two fights. I had cash to spare, so I added some teleporters and popped through them a few times to get used to the feeling. I was on a roll and I rode the high. That evening, I dug out an item from storage that had dropped when I was farming the hallow.
*Ping!*
The Twins have awoken!
I hefted the megashark as two pixelated, flickering eyes connected by a strand of tissue floated over the horizon.
"Now is COWARD KILLING TIME!"
They probably didn't get the reference, but they certainly got my meaning.
- - - - - - - - - -
*ping!*
Hidden quest Alert: Have a heart
Scattered across the game world, items exist that would increase a character's maximum health. For you, they function a little differently. Shatter 15 crystal hearts and 20 life fruits to learn how.
Crystal hearts found: 15/15
Life fruits found: 1/20
Once the steampunker had joined up, I'd gone for a walk-slash-dig through the jungle once I remembered I had a quest to do here. I needed all the HP I could get for what was to come. I'd also found the Wizard and untied him. Who tied these people up in the first place?
But that was the last thing on my mind when I went to craft the items now available to see if any of them were of use to me.
*ping!*
Would you like to learn this spell?
Wha-YES!
*ping!*
Crystal Storm
Fires a spray of razor-sharp crystals.
That's it? No mention of level?
*ping!*
A new skill has been created.
Conjuration (Level 1, exp 0.0%)
This skill governs magical acts of creation, bringing into existence all forms of matter and energy. It also deals with the expression and manipulation of raw mana.
*ping!*
A new skill has been created
Earth element affinity (Level 1, exp 0.0%)
No matter what modern science may say, no matter how convoluted the spell, some concepts are so all-encompassing that it is impossible to seperate certain phenomena from their ancient origins.
This skill influences all spells that deal with the primordial Earth, all its infinite variations and things derived thereof.
Does this mean I improve spells only by improving the skills that govern them?
Hmm...
I stood thinking for all of two seconds before scrambling out of the room.
WaterboltwaterboltwaterBOLT!!!
*ping!*
Waterbolt
Fires a dense sphere of water that can ricochet off hard surfaces.
*ping!*
A new skill has been created
Water element affinity (Level 1, exp 0.0%)
No matter what modern science may say, no matter how convoluted the spell, some concepts are so all-encompassing that it is impossible to seperate certain phenomena from their ancient origins.
This skill influences all spells that deal with the primordial Water, all its infinite variations and things derived thereof.
"MOREMOREMOREMOREMOREMORE!"
*ping!*
*ping!*
*ping!*
Demon scythe. Cursed flames. Golden shower. Oddly, the last one didn't count as a water spell, and gave me a new skill.
*ping!*
A new skill has been created
Hexing (Level 1, exp 0.0%)
This skill governs all spells that control, corrupt, and weaken existing objects and effects.
Now why did that sound familiar?
WHO CARES!
I ran outside and took aim at a hillside.
-60HP
And shards of crystal sprouted from my hand, puncturing the skin and leaving it immobile as joints were locked up by the growths.
*ping!*
You have suffered a backlash from attempting to cast a spell too complex for your current skill level.
"Ow...Observe."
It wouldn't last forever, of course. But my skill gave me nearly five minutes for the growths to recede, and until then my hand was useless. At least I hadn't tried casting a spell for the first time in the middle of a fight. I held my throbbing, ruined hand, and angrily smashed it against a rock. I lost more HP and broke off a few of the aberrant growths.
Needless to say, it hurt. The small rise in skill from the botched casting was little comfort, and I went back inside to lie down. I guess observe neglected to mention how much safer evocation was compared to spellcasting when it came to more complex effects. But then, the item was doing all the work when I was just supplying the mana.
*ping!*
Understanding has increased your intelligence by 1.