I squeezed my eyes shut.
Maybe, just maybe, if I pretended like none of this ever happened, I'd wake up back in my chair. I’d take a short nap, look for any scraps to eat for lunch, and then binge-watch random YouTube videos. I’d eat one of the packaged school-sent food for dinner, read an online novel, go to sleep at 3 AM, and then wake up in the afternoon to another day. Another normal day. And all of this would become just some dream I'd had. Some dream I’d forget.
. . . But this wasn't a dream. And it wasn’t a nightmare either.
This was real.
And that made it all the more worse.
I sucked up my snot with a quick snort. My bloodshot eyes stared at the scene in front of me.
Grass. Trees. Mushrooms. Rabbits. Squirrels.
It wasn't just familiar. It was exactly the same. Exactly the fucking same.
I looked up. The sun was shining brightly, just like before.
Just like before.
I screamed, cradling my head and falling onto my knees.
All of that? Everything I’d gone through? I-It was just a dream? Some horrible nightmare?
My chest heaved, my breaths growing painful and unsteady.
But it was so real. It felt so real, damn it!
I felt death. Felt it creep on me, tickling my skin, like some rotting creature waiting for when my earthly flesh breathed its last breath before feasting. Before feasting on my soul and whisking it away to oblivion.
How? How could that not have been real?
I glared at the mushroom.
Had I breathed in toxic spores and been hallucinating all along?
My head spun around, eyes shifting back and forth from the trees and the grass.
Or was this just some sick joke? Somebody playing me for a fool? Was a new drug being tested on me? Were there cameras placed somewhere I couldn’t see?
I needed someone, anyone, to give me answers.
Please. Please tell me! Tell me what the fuck is going on?!
I screamed. I cried. I begged.
But they all went unheard.
I didn't know. I didn't know anything. Didn't know where I was. Didn’t know what was happening. Didn't know how much time had passed. And most of all, I didn't know what to do.
. . .
A shiver passed through me.
No, I did know. There was one thing I did know.
I raised my head and looked at the direction I'd gone before. Then I stopped my pathetic whimpers, stood up, and, without even dusting myself off, turned the other way and ran.
Was I running for my life? Maybe. Maybe not. After all, this time there wasn’t someone trying to shoot me down. Neither was there some monster chasing after me.
No, I was running because I had to. Because I needed to.
There was a fire in my body. I didn't know where it had come from or when it had begun. But now it was burning, burning me from the inside, from somewhere deep within, grasping my heart in a fiery embrace that refused to be extinguished. I was trapped in its flaming clutches, threatening to bring me and my mind to a fate worse than death.
And so I ran. And I ran.
And I ran.
By the time I had realized how foolish my actions were, I’d already collapsed on the grass, breathing heavily. A cool feeling washed over me, like a burst of water dousing my entire body, my soul.
The flames disappeared.
I felt warm. Tingly. Like everything I'd been bottling up was leaving my body with every shallow breath. I’d never felt something like it before. Was this . . . was this what others called letting everything out?
...No wonder some people loved to run so much. Maybe, I too could—
My thoughts were cut short by the sound of grass being pushed apart by something. Something large and wet.
A squelching, sickening sound. A sound I’d never forget.
Never.
I stood up in a flash and dashed backwards, just right before it lunged.
Splat!
The monster landed where I’d been only a second ago.
If this was before, I'd probably have screamed. But there was something different. Something had changed.
I had changed.
The monster was still terrifying, yes, but now, my body wasn’t telling me to cry, scream, or run.
No. It had enough. I had enough.
My body screamed for me to fight.
The monster's dark-blue body bobbed up and down, doing its familiar jiggle.
“You bitch.” I growled, my body filled with an anger I'd never felt before. An anger that sought revenge for the pain from before.
I knew the monster was going to leap soon. I'd be stupid if I hadn't known that by now.
But this time, I was ready.
The wind blew. Gravity, wind speed, air resistance, the movement of my muscles. I could feel it!
My calculations were perfect—
|
|
Fuck.
The monster sucked my arm in for a second before I bounced backwards, gritting my teeth. I let out a hiss as my arms glowed transparent. Then they phased back into reality.
A tiny voice in my head whined, begging me to run. I refused. Whether this was real or not, it didn't matter. I wouldn't die. Not to this creature. Not again.
No. This time, I'd win.
My mind kicked into overdrive, thinking about my next actions, formulating a plan. The one thing I was good at.
First off, meeting another monster here clearly meant that there wasn't just one of them.
Were they roaming around the forest? If so, then it was better to get a grasp on them as soon as possible, no? And, if worse came to worst, I'd run. I appeased the small voice crying in the back of my head, promising that I'd give up if my next attempt failed.
Earlier had been a mere fluke. My steps had been too light, bringing me off balance when I tried to jump. There was something different about my body here. I was sure of it now.
I glanced at the monster. Its jiggling was nearing another climax.
I steeled myself, feet grinding into the grass, staring at the creature. I had to get the timing right.
Time slowed to a crawl. And it leaped.
My breaths were steady. I waited for it to reach its peak. The second it dipped downwards, I jumped.
No, I soared.
My eyes grew wide, my sandaled feet dangling in the air. The wind rushed past my skin. I was almost what? Four meters away from the ground? My mind and body couldn't make sense of the impossible feat, and in that slight moment of amazement, I'd lost my balance.
I fell from the sky. My eyes shut tight, my body bracing for a hard landing.
In another second, the sound of grass being crushed arrived. I expected for my legs to be the same. I opened my eyes and they widened again.
They were in perfect condition. No bruises. No broken bones. A few blades of grass were stuck on my skin, but other than that, nothing else.
It was impossible. But I didn’t have time to think about impossibilities. I turned around, searching for the monster.
It was a few meters away, right where I'd been standing. Something in my heart stirred and in that short, blissful moment, my mind ascended to heaven. Wet tears fell onto my cheeks.
I had done it. I had actually done it.
“I . . . DID IT!”
I laughed and whooped like an athlete who’d just won an Olympic Gold.
There was a way! There was a way to beat it! Or at the very least, escape its attacks.
My mind had just begun its high when the problem revealed itself.
Wait. Just ... how exactly was I going to beat it?
After all, even if I could dodge its attacks, I had no way of fighting back. The thought of slamming my fists into its body did bring about feelings of euphoria, but I knew it would be a fruitless endeavor.
So would I just have to wait for it to tire out? Did monsters even get tired in the first place?
My thoughts about finding a method to somehow damage the monster were interrupted by a sound. Another squelch.
This time, it was behind me.
It had the same exact structure and body, only it was a lime-green color instead.
Shit.
" Is that your twin or something?" I glared at the blue monster. It ignored my taunt, continuing to jiggle.
. . . I wasn't stupid. I could barely deal with one. Two?
No thanks. There was a time for everything. And now was a good time for running. The voice in my head cheered.
And so I ran, using my newfound Olympic jumping skills to maneuver around their attacks and the rest of the forest terrain. The voice in the back of my head did question the newfound ability and its implications, but I had no time to think about anything else besides making sure that I didn't land face-forward into a tree.
It was a blessing that physical fatigue didn't exist here.
. . .
Unsurprisingly, I'd lost my way while I was fleeing from the two monsters. The forest was impossibly large, and I swore every tree was beginning to look the same.
I glanced backward. Great. They were still chasing me. Just how hungry were they? I swear I didn't even taste good.
I faced forwards again, preparing to jump before another thought struck my mind.
Di-Did the tree in front of me look familiar? It was larger than any I'd seen before—
Oh god.
The sound I was praying, begging, to not hear arrived. The sound of an arrow.
Thuck.
I almost pissed my pants, or my robe, whatever it was.
Fuck.
. . . I could've ran away, to my left or right.
But I'd had enough. I had enough of it all. Fuck this shitty world messing around with me.
I roared, moving against my body's will, running towards the sound.
“You fucking psycho, this is the second time I—”
My cursing stopped in its tracks, replaced by a surprised scream, as if the whole world had betrayed me.
“A-Andrew?”
I felt faint.
“It-It was you?!”
The brown-haired man looked at me like I was crazy before reloading his bow. He shot again—
Wait. That wasn't aimed at me. What was he shooting at?
I turned around, and when I saw his target, I giggled like a little girl.
The blue monster burst into chunks as the arrow hit its now porcupine-looking body. The green monster was right behind it, undamaged. But that would change soon.
I heard him grunt and another arrow flew, piercing the remaining monster's gelatinous casing. And another one. And another.
On the third arrow, the green monster followed its twin and exploded. I squinted and saw that it'd left something behind. Two things, I'd discovered when Andrew walked forward and picked up the objects.
A small circular chunk in the same color as the monster and . . . were those coins?
I rubbed my eyes before taking another look, but Andrew had already stored them away, though where, I wasn't sure. He grabbed his bow—Wait a second. Bow?
Fuck. How could I have forgotten?
He turned and stared straight at me. I flinched, muscles tensing, ready to jump the second he began to shoot.
But he didn’t. Instead, he beckoned me over with a nod. What did that mean? Was he not trying to kill me? Then, why had he shot at me last time?
He made a hand gesture and based on the fact that he started moving towards me, I assumed it meant 'if you're not coming here then I'll come over to you.'
For some reason, my legs didn't move. My mind was screaming at me to run but my body was telling me something else. The man who was approaching me—he wasn't dangerous. In fact, I. . . I had the strangest urge to hug him?
. . . Fuck, Yohan, you're actually going insane.
I shook my head, disturbed at the sudden thought. Then I realized he was right in front of me.
He gave me a suspicious glare.
"How did you know my name?"
"Uh, y-you told me after we met."
His eyes widened.
That expression. He had the same exact expression of horror and excitement all bound up into one look.
“Impossible, y-you heard me?”
"Yes, I d-did? And we just met! I was dying and—” My mouth closed shut. The rest of my words were muffled and my throat suddenly felt dry, like I'd swallowed a desert.
Andrew raised his brows.
“What’d you say?”
“I’m trying to tell you that I—”
My mouth closed on its own again. My eyes grew wide.
I wasn’t dumb. Fool me once but twice? No. This was clearly the work of somebody. Or something. And whatever it was, it didn't want me to discuss my dream of death.
But was it really just a dream?
My heart pounded against my chest.
Andrew sighed.
“Now, kid, I don’t know how the hell you know my name or how you can hear me talk beyond the specified commands, but that gives me a breather. You have no idea how hard it is to talk to people with a pre-recorded script.”
“H-have you met others like me?” I'd given up on trying to tell him what had happened. Not that I wouldn't try again later. But for now, getting answers came first. I bit the inside of my mouth nervously, waiting for his reply.
“Yes. There are many like you.”
"Really?! Then—"
"You are heroes. Heroes of Terraria.”
My eyebrow twitched. I coughed.
“. . . Heroes? Excuse me?” Was I hearing him right? Or was he speaking in riddles again?
Andrew rolled his eyes.
“Alright, a to-be-hero, what else do you want?”
“. . .”
I felt another migraine coming along.
Finally got the time to read the chapters up to here. Prologue is great, a lot of confusing scenes aren't as confusing anymore, and you have added small details here and there that bring just enough to the story to be enticing. I probably won't have time to comment often, but I'll continue enjoying this in the background.
Thanks so much for continuing to follow the story and reading
! And yep, a lot of the extra details were thought of after I fleshed out more of the world and the direction that I wanted the story to go. (Before, I had literally no idea and was writing out of my ass, haha). For now, though, I will just write out everything and only go back to edit the previous chapters once I finish the whole story. It is honestly much, much easier to write out an entire draft and then rewrite it, but serially publishing in a webnovel format and getting instant feedback just feels so great and lets you know if you have anything iffy right away. Anyway, feel absolutely free to leave or not leave a comment whenever, no pressure at all! (Though I wouldn't mind hearts heh
) I hope you continue to follow along, there's a lot happening after these setup chapters!
@JVTM absolutely. This is one of those kinds of stories that I honestly expected to hate, but I loved terraria do much I decided to check it out and see how you were gonna make it work. Once I saw there was actually plot and not just done 10 year old's wet dream I got hooked before I realized it.
This man is a menace to society. He wishes to hug the guide. He truly disgusts me
Also, it's a multiplayer world? He says there are more of people like him. If yes, splendid. I can't wait to see giant d*ck's and great builds of other Terrarians.
Also Terraria players don't and can't get tired, just pointing that out. You said he didn't feel tired at all in one chapter and now he is. Hmm. Minor issue though.
Random fact: Skeleton is actually the skull and hands of Chtulu. The dryad's had fought against chtulu and defeated him but his remains still, well, remain. Nearly all the dryads had died in that war, and only one dryad remains (you know who).
You also have to consider the happiness of NPC's because in 1.4 there is happiness to NPC's depending on where they live and who they live with.
Also you think you'll use mods in this or will it be completely vanilla? (Mods like calamity, thorium, magic storage, luiafk, veinminer, spirit mod, ancients awoken, etc.)
One last thing, you might be able to use this for the story. As you (most likely) know, the guide's brother is the ninja. (The guy inside of King Slime) you could do something with that, like the guide would be crying or something (which I would love to see) and he would want to kill King Slime. I'm also assuming this is going to be in expert mode?
This was a long comment. Sorry about that. Thanks for the chapter though
Yep, I did say he couldn't get physically tired. But, like all Terraria addicts, he and the other characters can and eventually will become mentally exhausted. (Which will affect their physical characteristics. Heavy breathing, panting, etc., etc. Think panic attack.) Actually, mental power and the ability to persevere is a VERY big part of this story and will be the primary focus for the next 4 chapters. Mental power itself is a unique mechanic I have created for the story that is not actually present within the game. (Though it does exist in real life through our own sanity and ability to continue playing Terraria even after dying a million times in a row to ghosts. Totally not speaking from personal experience btw.)
On that note, the world that this story is set in mostly follows Terraria's rules, though many things have changed to be able to adapt the game to a 3D setting. Some are just my own personal changes (such as mental power and how player abilities will work) so that the world/story has its own uniqueness, while other changes exist just to make it easier to write the story. The world itself and changes to the original game will be explained throughout and, hopefully, by the ending, every little difference between the game and the story will make sense/be important to the plot. Or just be an addition/feature I thought would be cool, lol. Multiplayer and NPCs will be explored later for sure!
Unfortunately, there will be no Mods because it is so damn hard already to look up every little thing in the original game alone from the Terraria wiki. (I swear, there are a million extra things in the game that I never knew existed). And don't be disgusted by the MC! Poor guy has never played the game and there's no Wiki (#tragiclife), so he better love the Guide or he's screwed! And, yep, a lot of the hidden lore and stuff will be used, though I won't go into too much detail about that... The four lore pages will be included, though!
I'll end off here since I've def written too much, ah. So don't worry about the length of your comment lol. Keep the thoughts/commentary coming and feel free to point out any mistakes/plot holes at any time! It's a big help
and I do want to know about any jarring details that I can note down to fix later since this is technically a draft of the story.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for the chapter!
Oh wow, a comment 1 hour ago
Thanks for reading!!