William led Robyn to the Jungle village, which was a collection of huts made from Rich Mahogany wood with leafy roofs. Sid was waiting there.
"You two ready?" he asked.
William looked to Robyn. She had upgraded to Necro armour, crafted with bones they had obtained from the skeletons in the Dungeon, but still wore her Silver Armour in her vanity slots. A part of him wondered why she'd made that choice. Did she just prefer the look of Silver Armour?
"Sure," Robyn said.
Sid nodded.
"I wish you luck on your journey and on locating this person," Nissa the Dryad said, sitting cross-legged in front of a tree.
The three of them set off through the dense foilage, following Sid. William hacked aside the overgrown grass and plants with his Muramasa, while Sid snapped out his new whip – a Spinal Tap – at the Jungle Bats that tried to swoop at them.
"Here's the shack," Sid said sometime later.
William took it in. It sat on top of a large hill, and appeared to be made from pinkish Rich Mahogany wood, the wood type native to the Jungle. There wasn't much in the interior, and the floor hadn't been paved over with wood or brick or anything, just being grassy and growing with leafy bushes and flowers.
Outside, laid up against one of the hut walls, were some flower pots that seemed to be having some herbs growing inside, namely Daybloom, Moonglow, and a little bit of Blinkroot.
"Whoever lived here must've liked growing plants," Sid said upon inspecting the pots. He pointed away from the house. "The cave that I think they explored is that way, on the other side of the hill."
The cave he led them to was overgrown with grassy mud, vines hanging from the ceiling, and was dotted with flowers and other plants. William swung his sword through the vines to clear their path, unveiling bugs and grubs of different colours that would slowly scamper away to avoid them. The path sloped steeply downwards, and he could see it was already lit with torches, though not nearly as densely as he and Sid normally lit caves – there were huge spaces of darkness in-between each one. Whoever had done the lighting appeared to have been trying to conserve torches.
Or maybe they hadn't been as afraid of the dark.
"A bit further down here the cave stops," Sid said. "And that's when I found a tunnel our missing person dug out."
It turned out to be a deep shaft going straight down at the bottom of the cave. Rope had been placed going down it to provide accessibility, which Sid slung himself down first.
The shaft opened out into an enormous cave. However, unlike the normal underground William was used to, which was made of stone with patches of dirt, this cave remained as grassy as the surface. The walls were made of dark brown mud, dense thickets of vines hung from the ceiling, and the ground was covered with plants of several colours – mostly green, but also blues and pinks of some flowers.
He could see some enemies – Hornets, creatures with long, curved bodies and whirring wings, and another named a Man Eater, which appeared to be a long, stretching vine with a chomping mouth on the end.
The Hornets spotted them instantly and began flying towards them. As they did so William spotted some spiky projectiles being launched forth from their stingers.
He dropped from the rope and brought his Muramasa into one of the Hornets' bodies. He sandstorm-jumped in order to keep hitting it, and by the time he was flying under his Spectre Boots' power the Hornet split apart, dropping a stinger item that flew into his inventory.
His Spectre Boots running out of thrust, he grappled to a grassy wall, but at that moment the Man Eater had stretched over to him to try to take a bite out of him. He stabbed out at it with his Muramasa, pushing it backwards, then swung his Blue Moon around and thrust it out a few times before eventually also destroying it, its head bursting apart into greenery and its vine falling limp to the ground.
Robyn and Sid landed next to him.
"The Underground Jungle's full of deadly baddies," Sid said.
"I've been poisoned," Robyn said.
"WHAT?" William found himself shouting, louder than he'd intended.
She stared down at the ground. William could see her armour was glowing with a slight green tinge and red number 1's were constantly popping up from it.
"It'll wear off after some time," Sid said. "Don't worry about it too much."
William sighed in relief. "So what are we looking for?"
"This was about as far as I got last time," Sid said. "Before deciding to go back and call in you guys. My best guess is that if we follow the trail of torches, we'll find whoever came down here."
"What if they're dead?" Robyn asked.
Sid paused.
"They could be."
William stared at his friends in silence.
It had been some time since they'd considered the bigger questions about the world – like how they'd gone from the real one to here, or what happened after they died. Their quests involving the Brain of Cthulhu and Skeletron as well as building the villages for the citizens had taken up most of their attention.
But thinking about it at that moment, the one thing he knew for sure was that he did not want either of his friends to die. He and Sid had started out as rivals, but Sid had quickly become one of his most trusted allies and friends.
And he could say the same for Robyn too.
But what Sid had told him... that kept sticking with him, and he found himself doubting what he had said but at the same time wondering... Did he like her? Was it possible?
I mean, how am I supposed to even know if I... like someone? He thought to himself. From what he could remember from the real world, it always sounded like a big deal. But in practise... he had no clue, and nothing to go off of. Aside from perhaps some of the other citizens, like the Mechanic and the Goblin Tinkerer, but even then he still wasn't sure what caused them to be... attracted to each other.
If only I could see what you looked like more, he thought, casting a glance to her silver helmet.
They delved deeper into the Jungle. Sid spotted a small shrine built from gold bricks that contained a chest that appeared to be covered with ivy, however the chest was mostly empty – the previous human must've already looted it. However, on the other side of that same cavern was what appeared to be a large mahogany tree carving itself through the mud. When Sid dug into the trunk, he found another chest, this one actually appearing unlooted. It contained an item named the Feral Claws, which he gave to William because it enabled him to swing his swords faster.
"The torches lead in here," William said, pointing to what appeared to be another dug-out tunnel, this one leading horizontally. He, Sid and Robyn walked through it before emerging into another large cavern, however William found himself stepping on some sticky yellow blocks.
"What the..." he muttered, trying to jump from the blocks but barely able to get more than a metre off the ground.
Sid picked up one of the blocks with his pickaxe.
"Honey block? Delicious," he said.
"There's more honey over there," Robyn pointed.
William looked and spotted what appeared to be a crusty wall of honey at the far end of the cavern. However, this wall was speckled with yellow and black hexagons.
"That's not honey," Sid said. "It's a giant bee hive."
"Looks like the torches lead over there," William said. "There's even an opening into it. Our missing human must've dug in there."
"Now who would be dumb enough to dig into a giant bee hive?" Sid muttered.
The three of them flew over to the bee hive, dodging flying stingers from Hornets, and scrambled inside.
The interior of the bee hive was completely made from the hive blocks. Below them was a large pool of what looked like liquid honey, and a wooden platform stretched all the way over the pool to the other side.
"Be careful," William said.
"What if there's bees in here?" Robyn asked, sounding worried.
"Then bee careful," Sid joked.
William groaned, and looked up at the ceiling.
Right as a massive insect dropped on top of him with a roar. He jumped with fright, falling off the platform.
Landing in sticky, liquid honey, he looked up just as the giant bee charged forward, straight through Sid and Robyn, then turned around and backwards. Sid was able to jump over the bee, but Robyn was hit once again.
"That's a freaking Queen Bee!" Sid cried.
William threw out his grappling hook to bring himself back up to the platform.
"I guess this... thing killed whoever last came down here?" William said, looking around the hive.
"Maybe, but there's three of us!"
The Queen Bee hovered menacingly above them, her giant wings whirring. Stingers began shooting out of the array of hexagonal holes at her underside, which William dodged, and she followed up the attack with a swarm of miniature bees that launched from behind her. He swung his Muramasa several times, hitting all of the bees out of the air as though he was being attacked by a baseball-pitching machine.
Then the Queen Bee dropped down and charged at William and Sid, but they both jumped over it. When she charged back she charged at them still in mid-air, so they dropped back down to the platform, resulting in her charging straight over them.
William cast a glance at Robyn, whose armour was again glowing with a green tinge. He saw Sid was the same.
"Her attacks are poisonous!" William shouted.
He looked at her label to check her life – about 4200 left out of 4760. Much less health than Skeletron, but she was already putting up quite a fight.
The three of them kept on fighting, but the Queen Bee's attacks were relentless. Her stingers began shooting faster, and she started charging faster and faster as well. At one point she unleashed a series of charges knocking Robyn back and forth like a volleyball, before sending her plunging into the pool of honey.
"Robyn!" William cried.
The Queen Bee next focussed her attacks on Sid, launching a volley of stingers at a speed that rivalled his Minishark. He choked and gagged from the poison, before similarly falling off the platform and into the honey.
William grit his teeth. He needed to keep the Queen Bee's attention away from his friends.
But how long could he last against her?
The Queen Bee charged again, but William charged forward with his Shield of Cthulhu. He had two shields equipped – both the Cobalt one from the Dungeon, which prevented him from being knocked around by attacks, and the Cthulhu one, which let him dash.
He found to his astonishment that when he slammed into the Queen Bee's charge, the Shield of Cthulhu dealing damage to her thanks to the dash, she would just fly right past him without dealing damage. He was able to come to his senses quick enough to turn around and dash the other way, bringing his shield back into Queen Bee again as she made a return charge. On her third charge he mistimed and took some damage, but due to his Cobalt Shield he didn't get knocked off the platform.
He began throwing his Thorn Charkram at the Queen Bee as it tried to shoot stingers at him, but it switched to launching bees, which blocked the Charkram, so he sandstorm-jumped upwards and swung at the Queen Bee with his Muramasa, which both hit her and also instantly killed the smaller bees she summoned.
It was then that the Queen Bee tried to shoot forward into him, but he grappled to the ceiling, the retracting hook allowing him to dodge her charge. He found himself next to a ledge with a strange glowing orange larva.
Encased inside appeared to be a slim figure.
A person.
He gasped.
Almost without thinking, he swung his sword forward, cutting through the larva.
It split apart, unveiling a young woman holding a golden staff with a ruby on the end. She wore green armour that looked like it had been made from leaves and was held together by vines and hornet stingers. A red jungle rose was tied in her blonde hair.
Upon seeing William her grey eyes widened.
"Did you... kill the –"
At that moment the Queen Bee shrieked from below, a swarm of bees flying up at them.
"Not quite yet," William said quickly, and unlatched his hook, dropping downwards. His sword arced through the air, cutting through the entire wave of bees, and he drove it through the Queen Bee.
The girl dropped down too, holding out her ruby staff. Red blasts of magic shot out from the end, shooting into the Queen Bee, who shrieked again and charged towards the girl.
She grappled upwards using a hook that looked like it had been fashioned out of ivy. The Queen Bee narrowly missed her, then turned for a return charge at where the girl was grappled. She dropped down, and the Queen Bee passed over her.
William spotted Sid emerging from the honey at that moment, and he flew up to the platform where they were standing. On seeing the girl he gasped, but quickly composed himself and extended a hand.
"Hey there, I'm Sid," he said in an unusually husky voice.
"Fight now, introductions later!" the girl shouted.
With the girl's help, William and Sid were able to eventually take down the Queen Bee. Her drops all fell into Sid's inventory, though his inventory must've gotten full, so the rest ended up lying on the platform.
William breathed a sigh of relief and drunk a Healing Potion to top up his life.
Wait. Where's Robyn?
He glanced down to the honey pool. She hadn't surfaced.
He desperately jumped down, and into the honey.
Sinking deep into the viscous liquid, he felt his feet touch solid ground. Reaching forward, he felt nothing, so he tried taking a few steps forward.
Soon his hands brushed against hard metal. Robyn's silver armour. He put two hands on her, and hefted her to the surface.
He gasped as he laid her out on the hive blocks next to the honey pond.
"Robyn!" he cried.
Inwardly he felt his heart pounding. What if she was dead? What if she'd drowned in the honey, and he'd just hauled her corpse out of the liquid?
He'd never get to figure out how he felt about her.
Maybe a vote will help William feel better.