Hey guys, as promised, this chapter, due to these special circumstances, will be accessible to everyone for a week. After that, it will continue normally again, but I just want you to have a look at the quality going forward. Hope you enjoy^^
After a brief pause to calm his nerves, Jose started another run.
He was confident that this time would be inherently different from his last attempts. He swore to be more careful than he's ever been before, and he definitely wouldn't mindlessly approach any monsters, look out for traps, and only take what he needs instead of getting sidetracked.
This time again, as soon as he appeared, he completely ignored the guide and instantly sprinted in one direction, before the poor guide could get even a single word out.
"Ok, first wood, then armor, and then down into a cave," he muttered to himself like a mantra. "Stay focused, stay careful, stay alive."
He quickly felled a few trees and crafted his wood armor in record time. After his armor set was now complete, he started longing for a good weapon, more specifically, the Finch staff, but that'd have to wait until he found another Living Wood chest.
After preparing himself, he cautiously made his way through the forest and kept his eyes peeled for any signs of danger until he noticed a pesky little slime. He debated with himself for a moment, and after a short internal battle with himself, decided to approach the threat. He felt ready.
Slowly and apprehensively, he took a few steps forward, his copper shortsword gripped tightly in his hands and his entire body tense and ready. As he got closer, the slime prepared itself for an attack and launched itself at Jose. He quickly side-stepped and sank his sword deep into its jelly-like body twice, before taking a step back. The slime bounced back, visibly damaged and now attacked again, but Jose had intensively studied its attack patterns beforehand and now knew his rhythm.
Dodge, slash, dodge, slash.
After a few clever dodges and well-placed hits, the slime burst into gel and disappeared. Jose was overwhelmed with joy and pumped his fist up to the sky in a triumphant pose.
"Yes! Finally! Take that, you stupid slime!" His first legitimate kill without the finch staff felt like a genuine achievement.
Emboldened by his success, he ventured deeper into the forest and killed two more slimes with growing confidence. He lost almost no health while exploring, and his movements became more practiced and efficient after every victory.
"Hmph. All I needed was to learn the mechanics a bit. This game is gonna be a piece of cake, hehe." He thought to himself, already getting cocky.
After searching around for a few minutes, he finally found a cave entrance. He was just about to enter when he suddenly stopped, remembering his past deaths. He calmed himself, took an extremely apprehensive stance, and slowly ventured inside.
He lit a torch and constantly looked all around him for any suspicious-looking tiles or contraptions. At first, he stayed near the entrance, mined some stone blocks, and broke some pots for a few resources. But after a few more minutes, he couldn't delay it any further and eventually ventured further down into the cave.
"Okay, just slowly..... Look out for traps... Don't get surprised by monsters..."
He moved forward with exaggerated caution through the dimly lit stone walls and placed torches every few steps to mark his path. The cave widened into a small chamber, and his torchlight reflected off something metallic embedded in the wall.
"Ore! Finally!" He immediately rushed forward without thinking, and he was instantly punished for his hot-headedness by tripping over a wire.
"Oh fuck..."
Out of nowhere, several poisoned darts shot out from three different directions and struck him before he had any time to react. His health started dropping rapidly.
Jose stumbled backward and frantically opened his inventory for a healing potion, but the poison damage was too much for him. He died before he could even select the potion.
[You were killed by a poisoned dart trap. In hardcore mode, your save file has been deleted. Game over.]
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Jose screamed at the top of his lungs and punched the air.
"I was so careful! How is anyone supposed to see that stupid wire?!"
He took several deep breaths and tried to calm himself, but his hands were shaking with frustration. He took off his Dream device, deciding to get some fresh air. He got properly dressed, left his room in the academy, and started wandering through the empty halls. As he walked through this grand building, the moonlight gently fell through the windows, making him pause for a second. It's been a while since he appreciated the beauty of nature. He gazed toward the moon, its gentle light enveloping him.
"I wonder if Boshita is also playing this game... Heh, bet that Bastard is having as rough a time as me..."
He walked outside and sat on a bench in the garden. As he sat there, he started to relax more and took a few deep breaths, savoring the fresh night air, his gaze falling onto the water fountain.
"I really need to calm down... Urgh, this game is killing me!" He buried his face in his hands in slight frustration.
His mind, once again, wandered to Boshita.
"Should I...? Nah, can't let him think I'd need his help... Argh, Whatever!" He suddenly stood up. "Let's try again!"
He rushed back to his room and put on his device again, but then he paused. After a few seconds of contemplating, he opened the forum and started to look at the different Terraria posts.
Clara's POV
After Clara had participated in the Minecraft tournament and also played lots of the Pixelmon mod, she was delighted when Alto announced Terraria, a game seeming so similar to Minecraft, and of course, she immediately bought it.
As soon as it arrived, she ripped the packaging apart like a 6-year-old on Christmas Eve who can't wait to get their hands on their presents. She put on her device, lay down, and got sucked into the game.
The first thing she saw was the start screen, and she was immediately hit with a suspenseful 8-bit track. After enjoying the surprisingly different OST and vibe to the Minecraft start screen, she went ahead and accessed the normal options for world creation. (But without the difficulty options, since Alto defaulted the world difficulty to Master). Afterwards, she went to the character creation screen, but she immediately became a bit puzzled.
"Hmmm... It's similar to Minecraft, but what's that? Let's see... Journey, Classic, Mediumcore, Hardcore... Oh, but it says what they are... What??? My world would get destroyed if I die in Hardcore? Who would ever do that to themselves..."
She was genuinely a bit confused about why Alto would put something like that in a game, and didn't understand in the slightest why anyone would ever wanna go through such torture.
Eventually, she selected the Classic difficulty, wanting to experience the game to its fullest, without getting frustrated or losing her progress. Then she proceeded to create her character, and unlike Jose, she created a really cute rabbit folk character, in the image of the most badass character she knew: Officer Judy from Liberty City.
After creation, she was thrown into the world of Terraria, and like Jose, spawned next to the guide. She smiled as she looked around in excitement.
"Wow, this is really like Minecraft, but... less blocky..."
Then the Guide started talking and dumped all the lore of this world onto her. But unlike Jose, Clara was deeply fascinated. She hung onto every word the guide said and listened intently. She didn't understand everything and tried to ask a few questions, but she noticed that this encounter was scripted, and the guide couldn't react to what she said while he was talking about this world, so she just continued to listen with childlike wonder in her eyes.
After the Guide was done talking and sent her out into the world, she first stood still for a while, processing what she'd just heard.
"Wow... I've never thought it could be like this... I mean, yeah... I did expect it to be really good, it's from Alto after all, but I never expected a plot and world in a Dream Game could be so... layered. This isn't just your typical save the world and become the hero thing... It's much bigger, and it has so many layers to it... There's so much lore..." She was utterly amazed. After all, Clara is very susceptible to theorycrafting.
It took a while, but she processed every word said and started to feel bad for the poor Guide. She was the only one around, the only one who could save him and the entire world from its demise, so she didn't just want to leave him standing here out in the middle of nowhere. Thus, she left and started doing what every Minecraft player does first when starting a new sandbox game: Chopping wood.
And it worked wonderfully.
After she had some wood, she instinctively wanted to craft a workbench and was pleasantly surprised to see that the crafting process in this game was much easier, straightforward, and more streamlined when compared to Minecraft.
Now that she had her workbench, she hurriedly started building a small house for the Guide to live in, so that he didn't have to stay out in the freezing cold. No matter what game she plays, Clara always shows compassion to the NPCs she encounters, and it's not any different here either.
Clara is a bit sad that she can't make a bed for him yet, but that's a problem for later. So, she went outside, chopped some more wood, and crafted herself a wooden armor for more protection. Feeling a bit safer now, she ventured out into the woods, her copper shortsword in hand, and her stance careful. After wandering around for a while, Clara finally spots her first enemy, a slime. Upon seeing the cute little blob, she slightly lets down her guard, admiring its cuteness, and unconsciously takes a few steps toward it.
"Oh wow... it looks so soft and cute OMG!!!! I wonder if you can also have pets in this game... AHHHHHH I want a pet slime!!!!!" She thought to herself.
But as she got closer, the slime noticed her and immediately launched an attack at Clara. She was still enthralled by the slime's cuteness and was utterly startled by its sudden attack. As the slime got closer and closer, she hastily tried to ready her weapon in defense.
Hey guys, this is the first time I've ever written a complete chapter, or any kind of story. I'm really new to all this writing stuff, so please forgive me for some of my beginner mistakes. I'll try my best to improve myself and hope you still enjoyed this chapter nonetheless. If you have any feedback, feel free to share it with me. I'm thrilled to hear what you guys think, the Good and the Bad. ( Oh, and I know, I didn't manage to double the word count, but I'll eventually get faster and better at writing over time, so don't worry. It just really took me a while to get this chapter together, and I didn't want to keep you waiting much longer.)