Guardians of Terraria II: The World of Calamity

Episode 23.4 - Rust and Dust

"Within an army, as weapons do, the soldiers serve different purposes. That distinction is crucial, as the wrong tool in the wrong hands—no matter how potent—may as well be a wooden club.

"Addendum: Seek out my base of operations in the lushest of caves. I wish you the best of luck with all sincerity, for it has been a long time since I have had a worthy test subject."

Draedon's voice blinked out.

"So unless there's some other biome we don't know about, I think he's meaning the Jungle," Robyn muttered. "Yet another lab."

"I agree," William said. "But there's one thing that doesn't make sense to me. Why are these addendums basically sending us on like a scavenger hunt or something? Though using Sid's video game logic, it makes sense, as like a way of pointing us in the right direction."

"It might just be that. Video game logic."

On investigating the newly-decrypted schematic, it seemed like it now allowed crafting of another new set of weapons as well as a Long Ranged Sensor Array, another component that could be added to the Codebreaker.

If William had to guess, the schematic in the jungle lab would end up needing the sensor array, and maybe then it would unlock another Codebreaker component. Specifically, the one that the still-yet-to-be-encrypted schematic from the Underworld needed.

Before they set off, William tried crafting a few of the new weapons that the schematic unlocked. The Hydraulic Volt Crasher seemed to be something that would be lethal at close range, but like the Codebreaker, it needed power. This was a common trait among all of the Draedon weapons – they needed to be charged up using Draedon Power Cells at Charging Stations, which boosted up their damage to its proper amount.

As for the other weapons, he suspected Sid and Meg would find them useful.

***

Finding the jungle lab turned out to be easier than William expected, as Robyn figured out that Dubious Plating and Mysterious Circuitry could be crafted into Seeking Mechanisms that could point in the direction of each lab. Again, like the Draedon weapons, they needed power and could only be used a limited number of times before needing to be recharged at a Charging Station.

The Underground Jungle of Secondworld was quite like the one from Firstworld despite how razed it was on the surface. William hadn't yet found if there was also a Lihzahrd Temple like there was a Dungeon.

On entering the jungle lab through a sliding door, William immediately heard the shot of a laser and the sting from taking damage.

"Up there!" He jumped up to the ledge above where the turret had been stationed, swinging his pickaxe. In a few hits the turret was reduced to scrap. Seeing a shaft that continued to go straight up, he spread his wings and jumped.

He emerged into a dark room that looked quite unlike any he had seen before, even among the labs. Along the walls were several cylindrical green capsules that looked like containment cells, though he couldn't tell if they held anything given the relative opaqueness of the glass. The two to the far right had been smashed, and behind them it looked like a massive beast had taken a bite out of the laboratory wall, beyond that a view into a massive jungle cavern lit with jungle spores.

Wait... some of those spores were moving.

He cried out as a swarm of hornets began flying into the lab. Dark green skin, whirring lime wings, bright red eyes... not normal hornets! He whipped out his Hydraulic Volt Crasher and began to rev it, the first few hornets flying into it, strange metallic sounds ringing as their bodies collided with his weapon. Electricity shot out from his weapon, zapping the other hornets and disintegrating away their health. Each hornet emanated a loud bang upon being destroyed, exploding into bug parts and scrap metal. A few managed to get past and ram into him before falling apart, dealing some damage.