towerator
Terrarian
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to my thread about my new fanfiction about Terraria: Calamity! It is going to be a pseudo-"playthrough" of the mod, hopefully up to the end. As English isn't my native language, being French (the audience gasps), feedback would be very appreciated, especially since I'm really only a budding writer! You may already have noticed my posts on the Calamity thread, and as I said here's the real deal!
Don't be surprised if I take one or two liberties for the sake of coherence (for example this "world" will have both a crimson and a corruption).
So without any further rambling, let's get started!!
Don't be surprised if I take one or two liberties for the sake of coherence (for example this "world" will have both a crimson and a corruption).
So without any further rambling, let's get started!!
“Attention please, mass teleportation in 30 minutes”
The day had come. Within the hour, Eldric would be transported in an uncharted land, with the barest minimum of supplies. His goal? To kill a local Eye of Cthulhu to prove his worth to the Academy. Only then would he be able to teleport back to his homeland, or, as some do, stay there to create a colony. It was the greatest trial the Academy could offer, but those who came back could finally integrate the Royal Guard. Their magic powers were also amplified, and they could survive much more trauma.
Suddenly, a man snapped him out of his daydreamings.
“Hello, my name is Brett. I will be your Guide during your journey”, he explained, shaking his hands.
“Pleased to meet you. Were you told where we are going?”
“No, but I know it will be close to the Grand Node. It’s hard to predict exactly where due to the interferences it causes”
“Really? I thought my grades weren’t nearly good enough to go there!”
The Grand Node. The source of all the magic in the world. The place where, according to the legend, Providence the Profaned God was born in a war between demons and angels, and tore the fabric of reality apart as her powers grew before finally hiding into the Sun. Since then, all mortals would birth with a limited amount of magic each. Close to the Node, nature was known to be strangely powerful, as all creatures were imbued with energy. Settling here was a challenge reserved to the experts and knowing that didn’t help Eldric in his anxiety. He was, in fact, almost regretting not to have voluntarily botched up a trial or two. But it was too late for that.
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“Mass teleportation in 10 minutes. Please check your backpacks of holding for the following: a copper shortsword, a copper pickaxe, and a copper axe”, the disembodied voice carried on.
Eldric proceeded. Everything was in place. Remember, he thought out loud, first you must get some wood, with it you can build houses. After that, you must build a work bench, a furnace, and an anvil.
“You know,” brett said “I’m here precisely in the case you forget something. And don’t forget I’m also trained to contact the Academy in case something goes wrong. You know, if you make a discovery, or to contact your family in the case the resurrection spell goes haywire…”
“That didn’t help at all…”
“Heh. Sorry. I’ve always been bad with words. And don’t worry, those spells are sound. They consume immense amounts of magic, yes, but they are sound nevertheless. The one I guided before you died no less than twelve times! Unlucky guy, we spawned in an antlion hill… his beginnings were rough”
“…”
“Sorry again.”
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“Mass teleportation in 5 minutes. This is the final reminder of the Trial: you must kill one adult Eye of Cthulhu, and any way will count the deed as done”
Any ways indeed, but generally the students used the methods of one of the four schools:
-The melee school, by using a sword, spear, or boomerang.
-The ranger school, by using a bow, or a gun if they were lucky.
-The magic school, by casting spells.
-The summoning school, by creating minions to fight their enemies.
What to use? Melee maybe? No, it is too dangerous. I’ll probably get a bow, he concluded. Idly, he looked at the other candidades, a bit farther. Some looked overjoyed, some even more worried than him, some finally did look relaxed. Suddendly, the voice carried on.
“Mass teleportation in one minute. Please step on the pads.”
“Mass teleportation in ten seconds
“Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Good luc…”
The message was cut, and the whole world flashed white.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Eldric looked around. He was in a forest. The morning sun shone on him. Brett was near him, as curious as him about where they landed. Immediately he grabbed his bag and looked for his axe. Instead, he found something strange. The object looked like a red hourglass.
“What is that?” he asked his Guide.
“I… don’t know. Are you sure it’s not yours?”
“Of course it’s mine, that’s why I’m wondering what I’m looking at…”
Eldric started to inspect the hourglass closer. It had a red and black casing, and inside some red sand (or at least, he hoped it was…) was flowing. On top of it was etched the word “REVENGEANCE”.
“Revengeance? What could that mean? Is that a revenge? Against Who? Why?”
“To the Underworld if I know! Maybe there’s a message on the other side?”
Carefully, he flipped the object, still unsure about it. The sand started flowing downwards again. The etched words on the other side read “Harness your rage”. Still unsure of what to do, Eldric watched as the sand finished flowing to the bottom of the hourglass. And it detonated.
Neither Brett nor Eldric had any chance to even swear a curse before they were covered in the sand that used to be within the artefact.
“Aaaah! Dang it!” Eldric screamed. “That adventure starts well!”
“I think a bath is in order before we do anything intelligent”. Brett proceeded to go to the nearby river, quickly followed by the student.
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After that, it was finally time to start the proper survival: Eldric grabbed his axe and chopped some trees. Meanwhile, Brett would find something to eat, and kill some slimes if needed.
Eventually, a house was built. It wasn’t really much more than a hollow cube of wood, but at least, it was something. Inside, Eldric placed a bench, and crafted two chairs and a table.
“If you plan to stay, you may want to build extra houses, maybe an adventurous soul will brave the wildlife to settle here” the guide said. "They may get attracted here if the word of your future deeds spreads”.
The night came soon, too soon, and its horrors came with it. Before long, the house was surrounded by zombies and demon eyes. “More than usual”, Brett noticed. Suddenly, a zombie, bolder than the others, started banging at the door. It didn’t seem to be able to break it, but before long the constant noise started taking its toll on the nerves of the two men. With a shared gaze, both drew their weapons. Brett stayed far from the door with a wooden bow, while Eldric readied his wooden sword and carefully reached for the knob.
As soon as it was open, Eldric batted the zombie, and immediately retreated to free Brett’s line of sight. The arrow struck the zombie’s torso, staggering it but not killing it. Eldric charged again, but the zombie didn’t let itself die. With a swing of its rotten arm, it struck Eldric hard in the arm with what seemed to be another undead’s limb, bruising the bone. Ignoring the pain, the student thrusted his uninjured arm once again and jammed the sword into the zombie’s head, killing it instantly. Moments after, Brett helped him come back inside and closed the door.
“Are you okay?”
“Well, yes, it’s obviously fake blood…”
“At least you can still talk. Hold on, I have collected some vines earlier, I will make a bandage with them.”
“Tomorrow I may want to collect some sand to make bottles, along with a furnace. To make a healing potion, I’ll need mushrooms and… seeds?”
“Gel” Brett corrected.
“gel, and then we’ll be able to heal easily”.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Eventually, the morning sun started shining, it was time for Eldric to get out and start spelunking. He had noticed a nearby cave entrance, it would be a good start, as the digging capability of a copper pick was best described as… mediocre, to say the least. It was time to see what the local geology had to offer. Eldric spotted tin, iron, silver and platinum. He also collected some sand and stone.
After spotting a platinum vein, Eldric saw a strange object. It looked like a heart made entirely of red crystals. “What a beautiful sight” he thought. Not knowing what to do with it, he broke it loose and collected it.
Back at home, Brett had some more explaining:
“It’s a heart crystal! A rare corundum formation imbued with magic. They are known to increase your lifeforce! To do so, you must channel some of your magic inside it.”
Eldric grabbed the crystal with both hands and proceeded to activate it. After filling with energy, its red colour started becoming less vibrant, until suddenly it crumbled into dust shortly after becoming grey. The student felt healthier, just like he had suddenly been cured of a disease of some sort.
“You can consume those a few times, but only up to a point. The effect seems to disappear entirely once your lifeforce increases approximately fourfold. Rumour says there is some way of increasing it past this, but I’m not so sure.”
“And how about mana?”
“This can be achieved by collecting the shooting stars that regularly fall at night. By combining them, you can make a mana crystal, that works in similar ways.”
Meanwhile, Eldric crafted a furnace, and an anvil. Finally, he had all what he needed to survive, things were looking up!
The day had come. Within the hour, Eldric would be transported in an uncharted land, with the barest minimum of supplies. His goal? To kill a local Eye of Cthulhu to prove his worth to the Academy. Only then would he be able to teleport back to his homeland, or, as some do, stay there to create a colony. It was the greatest trial the Academy could offer, but those who came back could finally integrate the Royal Guard. Their magic powers were also amplified, and they could survive much more trauma.
Suddenly, a man snapped him out of his daydreamings.
“Hello, my name is Brett. I will be your Guide during your journey”, he explained, shaking his hands.
“Pleased to meet you. Were you told where we are going?”
“No, but I know it will be close to the Grand Node. It’s hard to predict exactly where due to the interferences it causes”
“Really? I thought my grades weren’t nearly good enough to go there!”
The Grand Node. The source of all the magic in the world. The place where, according to the legend, Providence the Profaned God was born in a war between demons and angels, and tore the fabric of reality apart as her powers grew before finally hiding into the Sun. Since then, all mortals would birth with a limited amount of magic each. Close to the Node, nature was known to be strangely powerful, as all creatures were imbued with energy. Settling here was a challenge reserved to the experts and knowing that didn’t help Eldric in his anxiety. He was, in fact, almost regretting not to have voluntarily botched up a trial or two. But it was too late for that.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
“Mass teleportation in 10 minutes. Please check your backpacks of holding for the following: a copper shortsword, a copper pickaxe, and a copper axe”, the disembodied voice carried on.
Eldric proceeded. Everything was in place. Remember, he thought out loud, first you must get some wood, with it you can build houses. After that, you must build a work bench, a furnace, and an anvil.
“You know,” brett said “I’m here precisely in the case you forget something. And don’t forget I’m also trained to contact the Academy in case something goes wrong. You know, if you make a discovery, or to contact your family in the case the resurrection spell goes haywire…”
“That didn’t help at all…”
“Heh. Sorry. I’ve always been bad with words. And don’t worry, those spells are sound. They consume immense amounts of magic, yes, but they are sound nevertheless. The one I guided before you died no less than twelve times! Unlucky guy, we spawned in an antlion hill… his beginnings were rough”
“…”
“Sorry again.”
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
“Mass teleportation in 5 minutes. This is the final reminder of the Trial: you must kill one adult Eye of Cthulhu, and any way will count the deed as done”
Any ways indeed, but generally the students used the methods of one of the four schools:
-The melee school, by using a sword, spear, or boomerang.
-The ranger school, by using a bow, or a gun if they were lucky.
-The magic school, by casting spells.
-The summoning school, by creating minions to fight their enemies.
What to use? Melee maybe? No, it is too dangerous. I’ll probably get a bow, he concluded. Idly, he looked at the other candidades, a bit farther. Some looked overjoyed, some even more worried than him, some finally did look relaxed. Suddendly, the voice carried on.
“Mass teleportation in one minute. Please step on the pads.”
“Mass teleportation in ten seconds
“Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Good luc…”
The message was cut, and the whole world flashed white.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Eldric looked around. He was in a forest. The morning sun shone on him. Brett was near him, as curious as him about where they landed. Immediately he grabbed his bag and looked for his axe. Instead, he found something strange. The object looked like a red hourglass.
“What is that?” he asked his Guide.
“I… don’t know. Are you sure it’s not yours?”
“Of course it’s mine, that’s why I’m wondering what I’m looking at…”
Eldric started to inspect the hourglass closer. It had a red and black casing, and inside some red sand (or at least, he hoped it was…) was flowing. On top of it was etched the word “REVENGEANCE”.
“Revengeance? What could that mean? Is that a revenge? Against Who? Why?”
“To the Underworld if I know! Maybe there’s a message on the other side?”
Carefully, he flipped the object, still unsure about it. The sand started flowing downwards again. The etched words on the other side read “Harness your rage”. Still unsure of what to do, Eldric watched as the sand finished flowing to the bottom of the hourglass. And it detonated.
Neither Brett nor Eldric had any chance to even swear a curse before they were covered in the sand that used to be within the artefact.
“Aaaah! Dang it!” Eldric screamed. “That adventure starts well!”
“I think a bath is in order before we do anything intelligent”. Brett proceeded to go to the nearby river, quickly followed by the student.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
After that, it was finally time to start the proper survival: Eldric grabbed his axe and chopped some trees. Meanwhile, Brett would find something to eat, and kill some slimes if needed.
Eventually, a house was built. It wasn’t really much more than a hollow cube of wood, but at least, it was something. Inside, Eldric placed a bench, and crafted two chairs and a table.
“If you plan to stay, you may want to build extra houses, maybe an adventurous soul will brave the wildlife to settle here” the guide said. "They may get attracted here if the word of your future deeds spreads”.
The night came soon, too soon, and its horrors came with it. Before long, the house was surrounded by zombies and demon eyes. “More than usual”, Brett noticed. Suddenly, a zombie, bolder than the others, started banging at the door. It didn’t seem to be able to break it, but before long the constant noise started taking its toll on the nerves of the two men. With a shared gaze, both drew their weapons. Brett stayed far from the door with a wooden bow, while Eldric readied his wooden sword and carefully reached for the knob.
As soon as it was open, Eldric batted the zombie, and immediately retreated to free Brett’s line of sight. The arrow struck the zombie’s torso, staggering it but not killing it. Eldric charged again, but the zombie didn’t let itself die. With a swing of its rotten arm, it struck Eldric hard in the arm with what seemed to be another undead’s limb, bruising the bone. Ignoring the pain, the student thrusted his uninjured arm once again and jammed the sword into the zombie’s head, killing it instantly. Moments after, Brett helped him come back inside and closed the door.
“Are you okay?”
“Well, yes, it’s obviously fake blood…”
“At least you can still talk. Hold on, I have collected some vines earlier, I will make a bandage with them.”
“Tomorrow I may want to collect some sand to make bottles, along with a furnace. To make a healing potion, I’ll need mushrooms and… seeds?”
“Gel” Brett corrected.
“gel, and then we’ll be able to heal easily”.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Eventually, the morning sun started shining, it was time for Eldric to get out and start spelunking. He had noticed a nearby cave entrance, it would be a good start, as the digging capability of a copper pick was best described as… mediocre, to say the least. It was time to see what the local geology had to offer. Eldric spotted tin, iron, silver and platinum. He also collected some sand and stone.
After spotting a platinum vein, Eldric saw a strange object. It looked like a heart made entirely of red crystals. “What a beautiful sight” he thought. Not knowing what to do with it, he broke it loose and collected it.
Back at home, Brett had some more explaining:
“It’s a heart crystal! A rare corundum formation imbued with magic. They are known to increase your lifeforce! To do so, you must channel some of your magic inside it.”
Eldric grabbed the crystal with both hands and proceeded to activate it. After filling with energy, its red colour started becoming less vibrant, until suddenly it crumbled into dust shortly after becoming grey. The student felt healthier, just like he had suddenly been cured of a disease of some sort.
“You can consume those a few times, but only up to a point. The effect seems to disappear entirely once your lifeforce increases approximately fourfold. Rumour says there is some way of increasing it past this, but I’m not so sure.”
“And how about mana?”
“This can be achieved by collecting the shooting stars that regularly fall at night. By combining them, you can make a mana crystal, that works in similar ways.”
Meanwhile, Eldric crafted a furnace, and an anvil. Finally, he had all what he needed to survive, things were looking up!
As Eldric was adding a floor to his “house”, he noticed something weird. It looked like a small, green quadruped robot. After destroying it, he collected the resulting shards of metal. Brett wasn’t able to identify it, but the metal could be forged into a pleasantly sharp edge and was moderately tough. After a few kills, he finally had enough for a sword, a decent weapon at last.
“Maybe someone at the Academy could identify this metal?” Brett inquired, and Eldric acquiesced. “I will cast the spell to the academy. They ask us to report often anyways, for safety.”
After a few incantations, a blue light appeared at the centre of the room. A head appeared on the other side. They recognized the Academy’s survival professor, Dalamar.
“Hello there, Eldric! Glad to see you!” Dalamar warmly greeted. “I see you made a shelter! Excellent job. Do you have a question for me?”
“Indeed, I do. Could you help me identify this?” he said showing his new sword.
“Let me see… hmm… this looks close to tungsten… no it isn’t. That’s it, this is wulfrum! It’s an alloy of tungsten mixed with steel. It’s quite strong for a fully nonmagical metal, but it cannot, of course, compete with materials such as aerialite or hellstone. Furthermore, while nonmagical in strength, it has some tiny strengthening properties, you should make an armour with it!
“By the way, I wanted to contact you anyways, there are some meteorological news. Our aeromancers identified a slimecloud moving south, it may be on you within the next few days. It’s too early to know if it will cause a rain or not, but at least you’re warned!”
“Thank you a lot for the information, sir!”
“You’re welcome.”
The link was dispelled, leaving Eldric to his thoughts. A slimecloud heading here? That could become a serious problem if it began raining slime. Not from the slimes themselves, of course, those would be trivial, but killing so many slimes tended to attract the attention of a big one.
No one was sure about the origins of slimeclouds. All what was known is that it was the result of several hundred slimes congregated together and seemingly evaporating. As of why that happened, the best minds were still without an answer. It had been theorized a slime “hive mind” exists and forces the slimes to come together for some unexplainable reason, but no evidence was found.
Eldric eventually found some more “wulfrum drones” and some slimes saturated in wulfrum, but night fell quickly.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was only after midnight, as he was expanding the second floor, that he heard a terrifying yell.
“What was that?” he asked to no one in particular.
“I don’t know! But it sounded human! There’s… there’s someone out there!”
“Then I have to rescue him!”
“Have you lost your mind? He’s attracting all the zombies and demon eyes in the region!”
The voice distinctly said “HELP ME!”, this time.
“Then the sooner the better!”, Eldric concluded, ran to the door, and shut it behind him.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Outside, the situation was bad. One lone man was running away from a dozen or so of zombies, some of which wielded some primitive weapons. The man was old, but not elderly, and wore a brown ensemble with a feathered beret. He was clearly exhausted, and from times to times threw a knife behind him. It was clear he wouldn’t be able to run much longer. “Well, time to see if my new sword is worth it!” Eldric thought.
Acting quickly, he ran towards the group.
“Hey rot faces! You’re all ugly!” he said, banging his sword against a rock to make as much noise as possible. “I'd bet that what reanimated you thought it was a bad idea after looking at your face!”
Surely enough, a few of them lost their attention towards the man and ran towards him. The first one extended its arms to claw Eldric, but its neck met with the cold metal blade instead. The second wasn’t much luckier and was promptly bashed into the ground. The third and fourth were more resilient, and survived the first swing, but the second, horizontal blow broke their spine and caused them to tumble on the ground. Eldric finished them off.
On the old man’s side, the situation was grim. The man had stumbled on a root and was now cornered to a tree, and ineffectively tried to fight back. It was only a matter of seconds before he would be torn to shreds. “The real battle starts!” the student said as he ran towards the group. The following moments were a maelstrom of claws, blades, and fury. He got hit twice without even seeing the attacker. But the number of zombies was thinning, and the last one was killed by the man, who drove one of his knives to its putrid head. Immediately, Eldric ran to the man.
“Come quickly before more come!” The man accepted, too hurt to do anything else.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Once inside, Brett took his time to inspect the man. He had been bitten in the chest by a zombie bolder than the others. So, Eldric placed a pot on the table, filled it with fresh water, inserted the gel and the mushroom, and heated it with a torch. After a few minutes, the mixture took a blood-red colour, and became opaque. It was ready. He handed it to the man, who quickly downed it. The wound on his chest quickly started to shrink before vanishing entirely. Finally, the man talked.
“Thank you so much for the help! Had you arrived later, I was done for.”
“That’s only natural. What’s your name?”
“It’s Mortimer but call me Mort. I am a merchant and I had heard you were settling here, but I was surprised by the night while I was walking. It’s quite dangerous near here, right?”
“Indeed, it is. You can settle here if you want.”
“That would be an excellent thing. I could restock and sell you some wares! Nothing can stop capitalism. Except maybe death by zombies. And the… uh… that’s not important.”
“There is a finished room on the second floor for you.”
Mort the merchant proceeded to grab the clothes he removed and went upstairs.
“Weird guy” Brett said. “But he may be useful.”
Eldric didn’t respond. Instead, he proceeded to lay on the bed as his body noticed how, past the adrenaline rush, he was very tired. Sleep came quickly this night.
“Maybe someone at the Academy could identify this metal?” Brett inquired, and Eldric acquiesced. “I will cast the spell to the academy. They ask us to report often anyways, for safety.”
After a few incantations, a blue light appeared at the centre of the room. A head appeared on the other side. They recognized the Academy’s survival professor, Dalamar.
“Hello there, Eldric! Glad to see you!” Dalamar warmly greeted. “I see you made a shelter! Excellent job. Do you have a question for me?”
“Indeed, I do. Could you help me identify this?” he said showing his new sword.
“Let me see… hmm… this looks close to tungsten… no it isn’t. That’s it, this is wulfrum! It’s an alloy of tungsten mixed with steel. It’s quite strong for a fully nonmagical metal, but it cannot, of course, compete with materials such as aerialite or hellstone. Furthermore, while nonmagical in strength, it has some tiny strengthening properties, you should make an armour with it!
“By the way, I wanted to contact you anyways, there are some meteorological news. Our aeromancers identified a slimecloud moving south, it may be on you within the next few days. It’s too early to know if it will cause a rain or not, but at least you’re warned!”
“Thank you a lot for the information, sir!”
“You’re welcome.”
The link was dispelled, leaving Eldric to his thoughts. A slimecloud heading here? That could become a serious problem if it began raining slime. Not from the slimes themselves, of course, those would be trivial, but killing so many slimes tended to attract the attention of a big one.
No one was sure about the origins of slimeclouds. All what was known is that it was the result of several hundred slimes congregated together and seemingly evaporating. As of why that happened, the best minds were still without an answer. It had been theorized a slime “hive mind” exists and forces the slimes to come together for some unexplainable reason, but no evidence was found.
Eldric eventually found some more “wulfrum drones” and some slimes saturated in wulfrum, but night fell quickly.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was only after midnight, as he was expanding the second floor, that he heard a terrifying yell.
“What was that?” he asked to no one in particular.
“I don’t know! But it sounded human! There’s… there’s someone out there!”
“Then I have to rescue him!”
“Have you lost your mind? He’s attracting all the zombies and demon eyes in the region!”
The voice distinctly said “HELP ME!”, this time.
“Then the sooner the better!”, Eldric concluded, ran to the door, and shut it behind him.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Outside, the situation was bad. One lone man was running away from a dozen or so of zombies, some of which wielded some primitive weapons. The man was old, but not elderly, and wore a brown ensemble with a feathered beret. He was clearly exhausted, and from times to times threw a knife behind him. It was clear he wouldn’t be able to run much longer. “Well, time to see if my new sword is worth it!” Eldric thought.
Acting quickly, he ran towards the group.
“Hey rot faces! You’re all ugly!” he said, banging his sword against a rock to make as much noise as possible. “I'd bet that what reanimated you thought it was a bad idea after looking at your face!”
Surely enough, a few of them lost their attention towards the man and ran towards him. The first one extended its arms to claw Eldric, but its neck met with the cold metal blade instead. The second wasn’t much luckier and was promptly bashed into the ground. The third and fourth were more resilient, and survived the first swing, but the second, horizontal blow broke their spine and caused them to tumble on the ground. Eldric finished them off.
On the old man’s side, the situation was grim. The man had stumbled on a root and was now cornered to a tree, and ineffectively tried to fight back. It was only a matter of seconds before he would be torn to shreds. “The real battle starts!” the student said as he ran towards the group. The following moments were a maelstrom of claws, blades, and fury. He got hit twice without even seeing the attacker. But the number of zombies was thinning, and the last one was killed by the man, who drove one of his knives to its putrid head. Immediately, Eldric ran to the man.
“Come quickly before more come!” The man accepted, too hurt to do anything else.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Once inside, Brett took his time to inspect the man. He had been bitten in the chest by a zombie bolder than the others. So, Eldric placed a pot on the table, filled it with fresh water, inserted the gel and the mushroom, and heated it with a torch. After a few minutes, the mixture took a blood-red colour, and became opaque. It was ready. He handed it to the man, who quickly downed it. The wound on his chest quickly started to shrink before vanishing entirely. Finally, the man talked.
“Thank you so much for the help! Had you arrived later, I was done for.”
“That’s only natural. What’s your name?”
“It’s Mortimer but call me Mort. I am a merchant and I had heard you were settling here, but I was surprised by the night while I was walking. It’s quite dangerous near here, right?”
“Indeed, it is. You can settle here if you want.”
“That would be an excellent thing. I could restock and sell you some wares! Nothing can stop capitalism. Except maybe death by zombies. And the… uh… that’s not important.”
“There is a finished room on the second floor for you.”
Mort the merchant proceeded to grab the clothes he removed and went upstairs.
“Weird guy” Brett said. “But he may be useful.”
Eldric didn’t respond. Instead, he proceeded to lay on the bed as his body noticed how, past the adrenaline rush, he was very tired. Sleep came quickly this night.
The next morning was a busy one. If a slime rain was going to happen, there was no time to lose. First, it was important to create an “arena” of some sort, when the big guy would awake. Second, Eldric decided to see what Mort had to sell. Surprisingly, he had stayed awoken for most of the night, and had brewed many healing potions. Eldric traded some gems for those.
Eldric forged a platinum axe and a bow and chopped most remaining trees in a nearby clearing. Then, using the extra wood, he set an elevated path a few meters up. In the meantime, a pleasant number of wulfrum enemies came. They were made quick job of, and Eldric could finally forge an armor. It was crude and would probably only get him so far, but it was much better than nothing.
He then headed to the underground. Who knows, he though, I may get something useful. This time Eldric went far deeper. Down there, there were several new kinds of enemies, some of which Eldric was familiar with, some not. What was that, he thought. The creature looked like a very large snail. It was resilient, and seemed to be quite dangerous, but fortunately their lunge could be stopped. Feeling creative, he decided to call those creatures “shelly”. From his own admission, it wasn’t a very good name. Eldric also found two other crystal hearths, which he promptly used.
As he was placing torches in the most recently cleared tunnel, Eldric noticed... a house? Yes, a house, more than one hundred meters under the ground… after locating the entrance, the Eldric opened the door in a hideous creaking. The interior was unremarkable, except maybe for the painting. It represented… hard to say. Someone messily consuming a sandwich, apparently. He’d ask to Mort if the painting had any value. He also noticed a staircase, leading to a room with a golden chest! Inside was some extra silver, some potions, a gold coin, and some kind of boots. He experimentally wore them and was pleasantly surprised to see they were enchanted with a spell of Hermes, allowing him to run quite fast. Finally, there were two potions: one he identified as a regeneration potion, and a light blue one. Experimentally, he tried drinking some of it.
Instead, the whole bottle got consumed, and Eldric startled Brett who was passing by in the house. Seeing his bewildered face, the latter deadpanned:
“Well, you just discovered the use of a recall potion.”
Eldric didn’t answer and simply gave his Guide a mean look. “Well, let’s go back, getting there using those new boots shouldn’t take too much time.” He thought. When suddenly, a blue slime landed squarely next to him. Then another. Then a purple one. Slime had started falling from the sky.
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Eldric rushed back to the house, bought a lot of arrows, made them into fire arrows, and went back to the arena he built. Now the battle could really start.
Slimes were everywhere.
There were so many of them, Eldric couldn’t even reach his arena. It seemed that each time he swung his sword, he hit half a dozen slime. Individually, they were weak, but there were so many of them! At his feet, gel was pooling into some kind of disgusting ooze. Some of the slimes were starting to reach him. He could still knock them off, but how long until he was covered in them? And they kept going!
Eldric tried a whirlwind strike. The first slime burst in a spray of acid and slime, the second was cut in two and started leaking ooze, clearly dead, but the sword has slowed, and the third only glanced the attack. Immediately, two more slimes took the place of the dead ones, and it seemed like all those efforts were in vain. He had already killed a good thirty of them, but there were many more, more than a hundred or so at the very least. This time it was clear, if he stayed at the same place, he would get overwhelmed.
Eldric got an idea. He quickly ran out of the clearing, followed by scores of slimes. This plan would only work if they were all in one place. So, he ran around until both groups merged again. Then, he loaded his bow, and shot one flaming arrow.
There was an explosion, as all the gel that accumulated here went ablaze. Slimes were blasted off like a firework, some of them still on fire. One of them landed near Eldric, and itself detonated in a blast of fire and goop. “I hope that won’t cause some forest fires…” he thought. The rest was scattered enough to be attacked individually. Eldric didn’t lose a moment and ran towards the survivors.
The rest was easy enough, but of course that’s not what Eldric feared right now.
“What Eldric feared right now” landed, crushing a tree.
The King Slime has awoken.
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King slimes… not really an individual, but rather a subspecies of huge slimes. They are called “king” for two reasons. The first, of course, is their size: they tower any other known slime at over 5 meters high, and a weight of over 150 tons. The second is their golden “crown”. Was it just a coincidence? Hard to know, harder to test, hardest to make one cooperate.
Eldric took a deep breath and banded his bow with the first arrow. The arrow struck the titanic slime near the crown. The fight was on.
He ran towards his platform as fast as he could while still shooting behind him. The King was following closely and seemed to barely react to any attack. As soon as Eldric reached the platform, he continued sniping the King Slime from up here. Sure, that slime would have no problem crossing the distance in a single bound, but at least the spiked blue slimes that trailed behind it wouldn’t be able to.
Soon enough, the King slime jumped on it. Just what he was waiting for. Quickly, Eldric descended before it actually landed, and ran back to the other side. They had essentially traded their positions. It’s fortunate, Eldric thought, that despite its size, it remains a slime, with the same intelligence… The King didn’t realise immediately it was fooled immediately, but when it finally did, it hopped back towards Eldric, even more quickly than before
Eldric could get a few good shots on the Slime. It was now ablaze from all the arrows that had reached it, and its body had substantially decreased. But it wasn’t quite dead. The student checked his makeshift quiver. Many had been consumed during the battle already, but still not enough to be threatening. He started running in a circular pattern. His goal was to try to reach the side of his platform again, so that he could repeat the operation again. The King Slime was enraged. If it could scream in rage and frustration, it would have done so, without any doubt.
As he reached the platform again, Eldric started sniping the Slime some more. But he noticed something. The King Slime stopped, as if it was… considering something? Whatever, Eldric thought, and carried on shooting. Suddenly, it disappeared. And reappeared right on top of Eldric.
Immediately, Eldric choked on all the slime there was. He was quite literally in the slime’s body. The whole weight of the beast was seemingly on him, creating an immense pressure on him.
“!” the unfortunate fighter screamed, or rather, thought. He wasn’t used to swear, but the situation was appropriate.
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He needed to get out immediately. The King Slime, having noticed it, jumped yet again, probably trying to crush Eldric inside it. The landing was brutal. Eldric felt a vivid pain within his chest. One of his ribs may have broken. His lungs were starting sear from the lack of oxygen. He needed to grab something…
The King Slime jumped again, going for the kill, but in a desperate effort Eldric had grabbed to a nearby rock. The rest of the Slime hopped without him, allowing to finally breathe. Eldric ran again and grabbed a healing potion from his bag. Immediately, the pain eased, but he was badly bruised nevertheless. But this was no time for complaining. The King Slime had noticed he wasn’t inside it anymore and was already hopping back towards him. Eldric grabbed his bow again and started shooting again. All his arrows had extinguished, as he noticed in dismay. But he wasn’t the only one who showed signs of wear. The King had become much smaller from his repeated attacks.
However, the fight wasn’t won. What it lost in mass and power was gained in agility. Eldric could barely turn his back to shoot from fear of being overtaken again. So, Eldric decided to do a rather risky move. He stopped and waited for the Slime to come as close as possible. Then, as the Slime jumped, he sprinted towards it as fast as his legs allowed him to go. The plan had worked, and the King Slime landed in a thud behind it, confused of how its foe had suddenly disappeared. It was time for Eldric to counterattack.
But something deep inside Eldric was simply on edge. All those slimes, earlier, then him nearly drowning inside that abomination. It was enough. ENOUGH! Eldric’s rage took him over as he readied his bow once again. It was as if power was flooding his veins, infusing all his shots with unaltered fury. Eldric launched another volley. Then another. Then another. Then another. And the King Slime burst.
After calming down, Eldric finally realised what he had done. He had killed his first boss monster! He felt exhilarated. It was so hard! But it only made his victory more satisfying.
Eldric rushed to the mighty slime’s destroyed body and checked what he could scavenge from it. Several monsters, he knew, and all bosses, dropped some equipment. And indeed, inside the body he found a strange blue bag. Inside were some potions, a grey machine, a saddle that summoned a slime mount, the helmet and leggings of an oriental-looking armor, and a hook seemingly made of congealed slime. Two other items grabbed his attention: a large chunk of gel that seemed to have a chunk of the fallen Slime’s crown inside, and a large ruby that seemed to pulse with healing energies.
As Eldric decided to go home, the sun was setting. Whatever, Eldric though…
It had been a good day.
Eldric forged a platinum axe and a bow and chopped most remaining trees in a nearby clearing. Then, using the extra wood, he set an elevated path a few meters up. In the meantime, a pleasant number of wulfrum enemies came. They were made quick job of, and Eldric could finally forge an armor. It was crude and would probably only get him so far, but it was much better than nothing.
He then headed to the underground. Who knows, he though, I may get something useful. This time Eldric went far deeper. Down there, there were several new kinds of enemies, some of which Eldric was familiar with, some not. What was that, he thought. The creature looked like a very large snail. It was resilient, and seemed to be quite dangerous, but fortunately their lunge could be stopped. Feeling creative, he decided to call those creatures “shelly”. From his own admission, it wasn’t a very good name. Eldric also found two other crystal hearths, which he promptly used.
As he was placing torches in the most recently cleared tunnel, Eldric noticed... a house? Yes, a house, more than one hundred meters under the ground… after locating the entrance, the Eldric opened the door in a hideous creaking. The interior was unremarkable, except maybe for the painting. It represented… hard to say. Someone messily consuming a sandwich, apparently. He’d ask to Mort if the painting had any value. He also noticed a staircase, leading to a room with a golden chest! Inside was some extra silver, some potions, a gold coin, and some kind of boots. He experimentally wore them and was pleasantly surprised to see they were enchanted with a spell of Hermes, allowing him to run quite fast. Finally, there were two potions: one he identified as a regeneration potion, and a light blue one. Experimentally, he tried drinking some of it.
Instead, the whole bottle got consumed, and Eldric startled Brett who was passing by in the house. Seeing his bewildered face, the latter deadpanned:
“Well, you just discovered the use of a recall potion.”
Eldric didn’t answer and simply gave his Guide a mean look. “Well, let’s go back, getting there using those new boots shouldn’t take too much time.” He thought. When suddenly, a blue slime landed squarely next to him. Then another. Then a purple one. Slime had started falling from the sky.
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Eldric rushed back to the house, bought a lot of arrows, made them into fire arrows, and went back to the arena he built. Now the battle could really start.
Slimes were everywhere.
There were so many of them, Eldric couldn’t even reach his arena. It seemed that each time he swung his sword, he hit half a dozen slime. Individually, they were weak, but there were so many of them! At his feet, gel was pooling into some kind of disgusting ooze. Some of the slimes were starting to reach him. He could still knock them off, but how long until he was covered in them? And they kept going!
Eldric tried a whirlwind strike. The first slime burst in a spray of acid and slime, the second was cut in two and started leaking ooze, clearly dead, but the sword has slowed, and the third only glanced the attack. Immediately, two more slimes took the place of the dead ones, and it seemed like all those efforts were in vain. He had already killed a good thirty of them, but there were many more, more than a hundred or so at the very least. This time it was clear, if he stayed at the same place, he would get overwhelmed.
Eldric got an idea. He quickly ran out of the clearing, followed by scores of slimes. This plan would only work if they were all in one place. So, he ran around until both groups merged again. Then, he loaded his bow, and shot one flaming arrow.
There was an explosion, as all the gel that accumulated here went ablaze. Slimes were blasted off like a firework, some of them still on fire. One of them landed near Eldric, and itself detonated in a blast of fire and goop. “I hope that won’t cause some forest fires…” he thought. The rest was scattered enough to be attacked individually. Eldric didn’t lose a moment and ran towards the survivors.
The rest was easy enough, but of course that’s not what Eldric feared right now.
“What Eldric feared right now” landed, crushing a tree.
The King Slime has awoken.
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King slimes… not really an individual, but rather a subspecies of huge slimes. They are called “king” for two reasons. The first, of course, is their size: they tower any other known slime at over 5 meters high, and a weight of over 150 tons. The second is their golden “crown”. Was it just a coincidence? Hard to know, harder to test, hardest to make one cooperate.
Eldric took a deep breath and banded his bow with the first arrow. The arrow struck the titanic slime near the crown. The fight was on.
He ran towards his platform as fast as he could while still shooting behind him. The King was following closely and seemed to barely react to any attack. As soon as Eldric reached the platform, he continued sniping the King Slime from up here. Sure, that slime would have no problem crossing the distance in a single bound, but at least the spiked blue slimes that trailed behind it wouldn’t be able to.
Soon enough, the King slime jumped on it. Just what he was waiting for. Quickly, Eldric descended before it actually landed, and ran back to the other side. They had essentially traded their positions. It’s fortunate, Eldric thought, that despite its size, it remains a slime, with the same intelligence… The King didn’t realise immediately it was fooled immediately, but when it finally did, it hopped back towards Eldric, even more quickly than before
Eldric could get a few good shots on the Slime. It was now ablaze from all the arrows that had reached it, and its body had substantially decreased. But it wasn’t quite dead. The student checked his makeshift quiver. Many had been consumed during the battle already, but still not enough to be threatening. He started running in a circular pattern. His goal was to try to reach the side of his platform again, so that he could repeat the operation again. The King Slime was enraged. If it could scream in rage and frustration, it would have done so, without any doubt.
As he reached the platform again, Eldric started sniping the Slime some more. But he noticed something. The King Slime stopped, as if it was… considering something? Whatever, Eldric thought, and carried on shooting. Suddenly, it disappeared. And reappeared right on top of Eldric.
Immediately, Eldric choked on all the slime there was. He was quite literally in the slime’s body. The whole weight of the beast was seemingly on him, creating an immense pressure on him.
“!” the unfortunate fighter screamed, or rather, thought. He wasn’t used to swear, but the situation was appropriate.
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He needed to get out immediately. The King Slime, having noticed it, jumped yet again, probably trying to crush Eldric inside it. The landing was brutal. Eldric felt a vivid pain within his chest. One of his ribs may have broken. His lungs were starting sear from the lack of oxygen. He needed to grab something…
The King Slime jumped again, going for the kill, but in a desperate effort Eldric had grabbed to a nearby rock. The rest of the Slime hopped without him, allowing to finally breathe. Eldric ran again and grabbed a healing potion from his bag. Immediately, the pain eased, but he was badly bruised nevertheless. But this was no time for complaining. The King Slime had noticed he wasn’t inside it anymore and was already hopping back towards him. Eldric grabbed his bow again and started shooting again. All his arrows had extinguished, as he noticed in dismay. But he wasn’t the only one who showed signs of wear. The King had become much smaller from his repeated attacks.
However, the fight wasn’t won. What it lost in mass and power was gained in agility. Eldric could barely turn his back to shoot from fear of being overtaken again. So, Eldric decided to do a rather risky move. He stopped and waited for the Slime to come as close as possible. Then, as the Slime jumped, he sprinted towards it as fast as his legs allowed him to go. The plan had worked, and the King Slime landed in a thud behind it, confused of how its foe had suddenly disappeared. It was time for Eldric to counterattack.
But something deep inside Eldric was simply on edge. All those slimes, earlier, then him nearly drowning inside that abomination. It was enough. ENOUGH! Eldric’s rage took him over as he readied his bow once again. It was as if power was flooding his veins, infusing all his shots with unaltered fury. Eldric launched another volley. Then another. Then another. Then another. And the King Slime burst.
After calming down, Eldric finally realised what he had done. He had killed his first boss monster! He felt exhilarated. It was so hard! But it only made his victory more satisfying.
Eldric rushed to the mighty slime’s destroyed body and checked what he could scavenge from it. Several monsters, he knew, and all bosses, dropped some equipment. And indeed, inside the body he found a strange blue bag. Inside were some potions, a grey machine, a saddle that summoned a slime mount, the helmet and leggings of an oriental-looking armor, and a hook seemingly made of congealed slime. Two other items grabbed his attention: a large chunk of gel that seemed to have a chunk of the fallen Slime’s crown inside, and a large ruby that seemed to pulse with healing energies.
As Eldric decided to go home, the sun was setting. Whatever, Eldric though…
It had been a good day.
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