"What," says Sable.

"I am here to give you advice on what to do next. It is recommended that you talk with me anytime you get stuck."

"You... you said that already."

He shrugs, smiling at her a little condescendingly. "You'll need this." He produces a pack. "If you want to survive, you will need to create weapons and shelter. Start by chopping down trees and gathering wood."

"I'm not sure chopping down trees is that easy," she says, but she ventures close enough to grab the pack with her off hand. Without opening it to make sure, it seems to contain metal tools - is that pure copper? Feels like it.

...Sable picks up the tiny cube.

It is tiny and cube-shaped and made of wood. There's a - something, in her mind, telling her that she can now place thirteen blocks of wood within a radius, at an ordinary size instead of the tiny version. She just needs to pick where the blocks go, and it all aligns to the cube system already present.

"I don't want to build structures yet," she says to the guide. And thirteen cubes isn't much of a structure anyway. She sticks the cube in her pocket and attacks another tree.

"Yeah? How do I create weapons, then?" she asks, collecting the cubes and the acorns.

"When you have enough wood, create a workbench. This will allow you to create more complicated things, as long as you are standing close to it."

"How?"

"Hold the blocks of wood in your hand, then make a workbench."

...She takes the consolidated wood cube out of her pocket.

There is no foreseeable process between A and B. She tries to make a work bench, and - now there is a tiny workbench in her hand along with the consolidated wood cube. She now has twenty-three blocks of wood, and a workbench.

"None of this crap would make a very good weapon," says Sable. "Unless wooden swords are unexpectedly great in this strange creepy cube world."

"Once you have a wooden sword, you might try to gather some gel from the slimes. Combine wood and gel to make a torch!"

"...The slimes? What is a slime?"

"There are many monsters that roam the land. Most at night, but some, like slimes, are out and about during the day," informs the guide.

"Is that thing a slime?" she asks the guide, pointing.

"Slimes come in many different sizes and colors. The most common are blue and green slimes. They are usually found on the surface. Other types can be found in other areas, depending on biome and distance above or below water level."

"There are lots of different kinds of weapons," he says, almost conversationally. "A wooden sword is often considered the most basic."

The slime is knocked back! It lands a few feet away, and scrunches itself a bit, like it's lost its temper. Scrunch scrunch scrunch - jump! It's method of attack is 'launch itself at Sable,' apparently.

She dodges and whacks it again.

It is not a very smart slime. It is whacked, and goes right back to trying to launch itself at Sable. This doesn't work particularly well for it, but apparently upon seeing a tactic fail hilariously it's method is to do it some more. It's a pretty one sided fight. To no one's surprise, the slime loses.

And does it then vanish, leaving small mysterious items in its place?

It sort of explodes, actually. But it leaves small mysterious items in its place, along with the mess. The mess that is partially on Sable.

The small mysterious items are: two little balls of gel and three coins made out of copper. The gel consolidates itself at the first opportunity, the coins do not.

The coins go in her pack. She prods the little consolidated ball of gel, assessing it for likelihood of getting goop on things.

Okay, then, sure. She will craft torches.

Torches! They are sticks that are on fire. Surprisingly they're at an ordinary size. They consolidate, and the fire doesn't actually appear to be hot. Just - bright.

It doesn't burn her.

She isn't interrupted, this time. But the remnants of the slime she killed slowly fade away, like she was never partially covered in goo at all. How... tidy.

The guide is wandering around aimlessly outside. He looks up when addressed. "You should do some mining to find metal ore. You can craft very useful things with it."

"Ugh," says Sable. "How?"

"Use a pickaxe to mine through dirt, stone, and other materials. Some pickaxes are better than others - a copper pickaxe couldn't mine through obsidian."

There is copper and iron down there! They're surprisingly pure veins, divided up into cubes.

The dirt doesn't stand a chance. The iron and copper are exactly where promised, and predictably consolidate into two little perfect cubes of ore.

"Now that you have some ore, you will need to turn it into a bar in order to make items with it. This requires a furnace!"

"You can create a furnace out of torches, wood, and stone. Make sure you are standing near a work bench."

It does! She can make a furnace, now.

Sable makes a furnace and puts it next to the workbench. Now what can she do with her ores?

She can turn them into bars. Not a large amount of bars, but bars all the same. Something can likely be done with these bars once made.

She converts as much ore as possible into bars.

She now has three copper bars and four iron bars! This doesn't seem like a lot.

"Hello! My name is Dylan. In order for a room to be considered a home, it needs to have a door, chair, table, and a light source," says... Dylan. "Make sure the house has walls as well."

"Thank you," she says, rolling her eyes. "If it wasn't for you I definitely would've forgotten the blighted walls. Does that mean you want a house?"

"There are many different ways you can attract people to move in to our town. They will of course need a home to live in."

"In order to make a bed, bring fifteen wood and five silk to a sawmill. Other types of beds can be made at other crafting stations with different materials," he informs. He's still in his chair. He hasn't gotten up. It's entirely possible he is going to sit there for the rest of eternity.

"How do I make a sawmill, then?"

"A sawmill is made at a workbench, with ten wood, two iron bars, and a chain."

"How do I make a chain?"

"A chain is made with one iron bar at an iron anvil," he informs. No instructions on how to make an iron anvil. Of course.

"I bet you make an iron anvil out of iron," says Sable.

"You will need an anvil to make most things out of metal bars. Anvils can be crafted out of iron, or purchased from a merchant."

"Are merchants horrible mindless person-things like you?"

"How do I get fifty silver coins?"

"If you see a pot, be sure to smash it open. They contain all sorts of useful supplies."

There's a cave, thataway! It has pots in it.

Thataway she goes, then.

Rope! Copper coins! Arrows, torches (how does that even make sense, the pot wasn't lit up before she smashed it), and a vial of red liquid! A windfall, surely.

Sable collects the rope and coins and arrows and torches, and picks up the red liquid to look at it suspiciously before she puts it in her pack, and then goes to open the chest.

There's a set of throwing knives, more vials of red liquid, empty glass bottles, and four iron bars.

He looks at it, dutifully. "Lesser healing potions can be made at an alchemy station, out of bottles, gel, and mushrooms."

"It's a 'healing potion'? What does it do?"

"If you run out of health, you die. Keep your health up by consuming healing items, staying near items that cause you to regenerate, or wearing certain accessories." ... That sounded kind of condescending.

"You can make a campfire with five torches and twenty wood."

There's a warm feeling as soon as the campfire's down, that's quite separate from heat. A feeling of safety seeps in.

The campfires are perfectly happy to burn without heat or fear of catching, in her pocket.

"In order to make a bed, bring fifteen wood and five silk to a sawmill."

"How do I get silk?"

"You can craft silk with seven cobwebs at a loom."

"How do I get a loom," she sighs.

"You make a loom with twelve wood at a sawmill."

She collects cobwebs and pot contents. Smashing things! Hooray!

She will beat them to extra death too.

Well, that worked. The dead thing becomes more dead, and as such, explodes. As is tradition.

Good. She does the rest, thwacking the flying eyeballs with her sword whenever one comes close.

But now she has enough breathing room to make a run for her house.

She's faster than the things after her. But there are, of course, lots of them between her and her house.

She explodes all the corpses and dodges or thwacks the eyeballs as necessary. It's not much fun, but she makes it home and slams the door behind her. None of these monsters are smart enough to open doors, right? Right? Because she will block up the door if she has to.

"Blight you all," yells Sable.

The only reply is more groaning. Also an eyeball flinging itself at her roof.

The campfires' aura is soothing enough that she actually manages to sleep.

The quiet wakes her, and she stumbles outside, rubbing her head and growling to herself. Her head isn't exactly what hurts, but it would be impractical to rub her ground.

It is idyllic! As if nothing last night even happened. No mess from the zombies, no claw marks on the door. Just some scattered coins from the exploded zombies, twinkling innocently in the sunlight. A bunny hops, over there, nibbling on some dandelions. Hop, hop, hop. Nibble nibble.

The suspiciously tame rabbits don't actually have the sanity to run! They are tame enough to be picked up, and will even tolerate petting. This makes it pretty easy to kill them. They explode upon death. But the pieces can be cooked just fine. Campfires, as it turns out, are just fine at cooking rabbit. It's just the environment and her that it won't burn. If she wants to cook with it, it'll work just fine.

...She opens her groundsense to its full range again. (Ugh ugh ow.) Where is someone?

The someone is in the second little hut!

"Sable, is it?" says - a not-person that looks like an old man with a fluffy white beard and a slightly stupid looking hat. He looks like he's already settled in. "I've heard good things, friend! I'm Gus."

"You want apples? You want carrots? You want pineapples? We got torches."

"I have torches too," she says. "I would love an apple. I can't live on rabbit."

"Keep your eye on the prize, buy a lens!"

"You have no idea how high dirt blocks sell for overseas."

"Is there anyone overseas to sell them to?" she wonders, drumming her fingers on the top of the chest.

"Not even a Blood Moon can stop capitalism. Let's do some business."

"Nah," she says, and she grabs the chest and bolts.

Sable declines to argue. She runs, ducks into a cave, scoops the entire contents of the chest into her pack, and 'listens' for Gus with groundsense.

He declines to leave a certain radius of his designated home. "I hope a scrawny kid like you isn't all that's standing between us and Cthulu's Eye," he calls, aggrieved.

She ventures over to ask Dylan about the strange ores.

"Tungsten is a hard metal that is an improvement over iron in most cases. Platinum is very rare and is one of the strongest ordinary metals, a set of armor made out of it would protect someone very well," is his ruling.

"Seriously? This world is crazy," says Sable. "Platinum isn't stronger than iron. And what's an 'ordinary' metal? Are there extraordinary ones?"

"Hellstone can be found in the Underworld, and requires at least a Nightmare Pickaxe, Deathbringer Pickaxe, or better to be mined."

"...Who names these pickaxes? What are they made of?"

"A Nightmare Pickaxe is better than either a gold or a platinum pickaxe, and is made out of twelve demonite bars and six shadow scales." Pause. "A Deathbringer Pickaxe is better than either a gold or a platinum pickaxe, and is made out of twelve crimtane bars and six tissue samples."

"What's demonite? What's crimtane?"

"Demonite can be found extremely rarely in very small veins underground, but it is most commonly acquired upon killing the Eater Of Worlds or the Eye of Cthulhu. Crimtane can be found extremely rarely in very small veins underground, but it is most commonly acquired upon killing the Brain Of Cthulhu or the Eye of Cthulhu."

"...What are all these eyes and brains doing?"

"If you combine lenses at a demon altar, you might be able to find a way to summon a powerful monster. You will want to wait until night before using it, though." Pause. "Your current equipment simply won't do. You need to make better armor."

"Out of what? Platinum?"

"You should focus on gathering more heart crystals to increase your maximum life."

"...What's a heart crystal," she sighs.

"Underground are crystal hearts that can be used to increase your max life. You can smash them with a pickaxe."

Blowing up zombies is painful but, frankly, kind of fun. Sable could use some fun right now. She clears a path back to the surface and heads for her new house, exploding zombies and smacking eyeballs along the way.

It is a tiny stylized star! It glows brightly, at first seeming white, but the light it gives off shifts colors; pale blue, pink, yellow, some kind of purple, and others. The little star gives off little sparklies that fade away quickly enough. It's kind of cute, actually. Sparkly, sparkly, sparkly.

Well, maybe she can ask Dylan about it later. For now, she's just going to go home.

"There is treasure hidden all over the world. Some amazing things can be found deep underground!"

So she can curl up and go to sleep in it. Hooray.

Sable gets up, unblocks Dylan's door, stomps in, and wordlessly shows him the sparkly thing that fell from the sky.

"Stars fall all over the world at night. They can be used for all sorts of useful things. If you see one, be sure to grab it because they disappear after sunrise," he says.

"It's after sunrise now," she points out.

"My magic capacity?"

Slow blink. Vacant smile. "Stars fall all over the world at night. They can be used for all sorts of useful things."

She is entirely free to do so! Technically she's free to do whatever she likes in this land. It's just some of her available choices are likely to be deadly.

So far daytime has been mostly safe. She keeps her groundsense open, but only to a range of about thirty feet.

She tries cutting down a cactus to see what it turns into.

It turns into a bunch of tiny, slightly pointy little cactus squares! Well, one little cactus square, it consolidates. The needles are very dull for cactus needles - the uncubed version's much more dangerous.

They're probably useful for something. She collects cactus squares on her way through the desert.

Maybe the pear is also useful. It goes in her pack with everything else.

This place is intensely weird.

...That is not even a recognizable type of landscape. She expands her groundsense to full range, wincing, and focuses on the purple place.

Sable hugs the tree. What a good tree. How delightfully not-evil it is. Touching living things still hurts, but not nearly as much as the evil purple death dirt. It's soothing in comparison.

The tree would be happy to be of assistance, if it were in fact aware of the situation. It is not aware of the situation.

"The ebonstone in the corruption can be purified using some powder from a dryad, or it can be destroyed with explosives."

"'The corruption'? Is that what it's called?"

"Demonic altars can usually be found in the corruption. You will need to be near them to craft some items." Is that a confirmation? That sounds like a confirmation.

"What? What items? Are they worth it?"

"If you combine lenses at a demon altar, you might be able to find a way to summon a powerful monster. You will want to wait until night before using it, though."

"I don't want to summon a powerful monster! Why would I want to summon a powerful monster?!"

"You should prove yourself by defeating a strong monster. That will get the attention of a dryad."

"...And dryads are the people - or 'people' - who make the powder that purifies corruption?"

"The ebonstone in the corruption can be purified using some powder from a dryad, or it can be destroyed with explosives."

"Does the dryad powder purify all corruption things, or just this 'ebonstone'? What's ebonstone?"

"Ebonstone is stone that has been twisted by the corruption. Two ebonstone can be used at a furnace to make ebonstone bricks."

"Twisted by the corruption. What else gets twisted by the corruption?"

"Corrupt grass can be planted using corrupt seeds."

"What if I want to un-corrupt things, what then?"

"Sunflowers, when planted, stop the spread of the corruption nearby. They also have delicious seeds!"

"...Where do I find sunflowers?"

"Sunflowers can be found in the world and harvested, or bought from a dryad."

"If I ask you exactly what I have to do to find a dryad are you going to be annoyingly useless again?"

"You should prove yourself by defeating a strong monster. That will get the attention of a dryad."

"Is it the same strong monster with the lenses and the whatever, or a different strong monster, or does it not matter?"

"You can create worm bait with rotten chunks and vile powder. Make sure you are in a corrupt area before using it."

"Ugh!"

"Your current equipment simply won't do. You need to make better armor."

"I'll bet," she mutters. "Out of what, exactly?"

"There are lots of different types of armor in the world. It's recommended that you search for what is best for you!"

"Is platinum armor the best I can make right now?"

"There is treasure hidden all over the world. Some amazing things can be found deep underground!"

"Okay. Sure. Can horrifying things that want me dead also be found deep underground? I bet they can."

"You can make a grappling hook from a hook and 3 chains. Skeletons found deep underground usually carry hooks, and chains can be made from iron bars."

"Skeletons. Are they like those dead things that were hitting you earlier?"

"You should focus on gathering more heart crystals to increase your maximum life."

"You're really frustrating, you know that?"

"Underground are crystal hearts that can be used to increase your max life. You can smash them with a pickaxe."

"Yeah, so I've heard."

"Greetings, Sable. Is there something I can help you with?"

"You could try being less of a pain in the butt," she grumps.

"They say there is a person who will tell you how to survive in this land... oh wait. That's me."

"Okay," she says, glaring at the snow, "the desert was one thing, but I shouldn't be able to take two steps and enter a different season."

The snow has no comment on this. There is a very abrupt border between forest and snow, though.

"Is your master the horrible thing in the big creepy stone place?"

"Please, no, stranger. You'll only get yourself killed," he murmurs.

"Do you have anything useful to say?"

"I cannot let you enter until you free me of my curse." He motions to the door to the place.

"...And is your curse the horrible thing that's in there?"

"Defeat my master, and I will grant you passage into the Dungeon," he informs.

"There is a old dungeon not far from here. Your current equipment simply won't do. You need to make better armor."

"We've been over this. It would be a lot easier if you'd tell me what I should be making better armor out of, and how, and where to find it."

"You should do some mining to find metal ore. You can craft very useful things with it."

"So is 'platinum' the answer I'm looking for, or are there more metals that are even more inexplicably superior?"

"Okay. I'll go find a lot of platinum, I guess."

"Underground are crystal hearts that can be used to increase your max life. You can smash them with a pickaxe," reminds Dylan.

"I'll go find a lot of platinum and smash some crystal hearts. Where underground?"

"You can find different items depending on what biome you are in."

"Biome?"

"You are in a forest," he informs, brightly.

"...Okay. And instead of being in a forest I could be in a desert, or the land of mysterious winter?"

"There are lots of biomes in the world for you to explore. Even the ocean is a biome!"

"Okay. Biomes. Sure. What an exciting educational adventure this place is."

Dylan smiles at her. "My name is Dylan. I am your guide."

"You're creepy and frequently unhelpful but I guess you're not completely useless."

"I am here to help."

"...Do you have a mind which you just keep somewhere other than your body? It's hard to tell."

"...I didn't catch that, I don't think. Unless you're just demonstrating how well you can coordinate your creepy mindless people. But - wait - were there actually other people here before me? ...Did they die? They died, didn't they."

"You should stay indoors at night. It is very dangerous to be wandering around in the dark," says Dylan.

"Eeeegh," shudders Sable.

"I am here to give you advice on what to do next. It is recommended that you talk with me anytime you get stuck. You should focus on gathering more heart crystals to increase your maximum life."

"You're really keen on this heart crystals thing, aren't you. Platinum and heart crystals, got it. And... more houses for more creepy mindless people? Is that important too?"

"...Clever," says Sable. "Got it. And apparently one of the creepy mindless people can help me deal with that corruption stuff, too."

"The ebonstone in the corruption can be purified using some powder from a dryad, or it can be destroyed with explosives," agrees Dylan.

"Greetings, Sable. For a nurse to move in, you might want to increase your maximum life."

"I'll get around to it eventually. I'm concerned about cave exploration safety."

"The sun is high, but my prices are not."

"I'll take that as a no. What if I steal all your stuff again?"

"Lovely morning, wouldn't you say? Was there something you needed?"

"Great." She comes inside. "Do you have more stuff?"

"Not even a Blood Moon can stop capitalism. Let's do some business," says the merchant, and he produces the chest. It has - the exact same items that were in it before. Well then.

Sable grabs it.

The merchant sighs heavily, but does not give chase this time. "Night be upon us soon, friend."

"You can tell a Blood Moon is out when the sky turns red. There is something about it that causes monsters to swarm."

"Worse than normal?"

"It is very dangerous to be wandering around in the dark."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"You should stay indoors at night," agrees Dylan.

"I hear you."

The guide doesn't say anything else, but he does look at Sable, sort of expectantly.

"So, I should go dig up as much platinum as I can find and make armour with it, then pack a lot of healing potions and torches and start exploring caves? During the daytime so I don't get swarmed by lots of monsters?"

"You can make a grappling hook from a hook and 3 chains. Skeletons found deep underground usually carry hooks, and chains can be made from iron bars," says Dylan. In a - sort of agreeing way.

"Underground sounds like a useful place. Anything horrifying I should be worried about down there?"

"...I should be paying attention to monsters that will come out of the dirt? What, like... extremely aggressive moles?"

"You can create worm bait -"

"...Worms. Are they by any chance giant worms," she sighs.

Silence from Dylan and Gus. No reply available.

"Thanks for the warning, anyway."

"If you see a pot, be sure to smash it open. They contain all sorts of useful supplies."

There are mushrooms! They are bright and yellow and have orange spots.

In the evening when she heads back home, she goes to see Dylan and shows him the mushroom.

"Lesser healing potions can be made at an alchemy station, out of bottles, gel, and mushrooms," he proclaims.

"Are the mushrooms safe to eat?"

"A mushroom, a goldfish, and a bowl over a cooking pot makes a bowl of soup."

"...And where do I get a goldfish?"

"Okay. And then I can catch goldfish. In weird cube world magic ways, or relatively normal ways?"

"Some amazing things can be found deep underground. Even the ocean is a biome."

"...Do your crazy goldfish live in the ocean or is there something else going on here?"

"Fishing in the ocean is going to get me better things than soup? Soup is important!"

"A salmon can be made into a cooked fish at a cooking pot."

"Got it."

"I am here to help," says Dylan, a little primly.

She snorts.

"Is there something I can help you with?"