Chapter 14 14: Bad Children Get Punished, Good Children Get Rewarded

The first laboratory was located beneath the desert, in the biome known as the Sunken Sea.

But because the location of the planetoid lab was fixed, Drake had decided to explore this one first.

In any case, aside from being temporarily unable to decrypt the encrypted schematics, the overall harvest here would not be lacking.

"Just as I thought—the security measures are all on the upper levels of the laboratory."

After confirming the information in his memory, Drake waved his hand and began looting on a grand scale!

The four dormant Power Cell Factories inside the lab could be directly mined with a pickaxe and stored in his inventory.

Once placed again, these battery factories could produce Power Cells out of thin air!

These batteries could be used to charge Draedon-tech weapons or craft other items.

Besides that, there were also two Charging Stations in the lab that he could take along.

These were essential facilities for recharging—just place the equipment and the batteries inside.

Last were the two Security Chests.

Like the golden chest Drake had found before, they counted as environmental treasure chests.

The difference was that the Security Chests in the planetoid lab only dropped fixed items.

Because this lab had been used by Draedon to test plant samples, the chests contained a large number of planter boxes and herb bags.

Of course, they also contained miscellaneous items such as bombs, healing potions, torches, and coins.

But the most crucial part was the several special items guaranteed to appear inside!

[You obtained "Green Seeking Mechanism"]

[You obtained "Encrypted Schematic (Planetoid)"]

[You obtained "Superheated Ion Blaster"!]

"Wait, what the hell is this?!"

Looking at the futuristic purple firearm that had suddenly appeared in his hands, Drake froze on the spot.

"Is this really something I can get already?!"

[Superheated Ion Blaster (Pink)]

[Damage 16. Can switch between the following two firing modes:]

[Consumes 20 mana to fire 1 phase laser orb]

[Consumes 6 mana to fire 1 energy beam]

[Can be upgraded after defeating "King Slime"]

[Can be upgraded a total of 3 times]

Pink rarity was the highest-grade item Drake had obtained so far.

Under normal circumstances, this was the kind of equipment one could only get after entering Hardmode in Terraria.

For Drake right now, this was nothing less than an early-game god-tier weapon!

"It's weaker than I remember."

"Looks like I'll have to defeat bosses before it regains its original power."

Like Sky Glaze, which he had obtained earlier, this too was a magic weapon.

But rather than a staff, it belonged to another Terraria weapon type: a magic gun.

A magic gun attacked similarly to a conventional firearm, except it consumed mana instead of bullets.

Drake only had 20 mana total right now, meaning one shot of the phase laser orb would completely empty his mana bar.

Fortunately, Lesser Mana Potions in the shop weren't expensive, so he could drink them as needed.

After sweeping everything out of the Security Chests, there was little left in the laboratory worth looting.

Even if he had missed something, he could always come back later.

"Time to go."

After searching through his messy inventory for a moment, Drake pulled out a newly acquired potion.

The potion was a pale sky-blue color and looked rather unusual.

[Recall Potion: Teleports you to your spawn point upon use]

That's right—this was a potion that could send Drake home!

Originally, Drake had planned to return the same way he came, but the Security Chests had dropped several Recall Potions.

When exploring, their teleportation effect was extremely convenient.

The downside was that each use completely consumed one bottle, making them rather costly.

"I got a lot of planter boxes and herb bags this time."

"It's time to start planting herbs and brewing my own potions."

Terraria had many kinds of magical potions with different functions, all of which could be brewed through Crafting.

To make a Recall Potion, one needed 1 bottle of water, 1 Daybloom, and 1 Specular Fish.

Daybloom could be obtained through planting, while Specular Fish had to be caught in water pools in specific environments.

Planting herbs was easy enough—just put the seeds into planters and leave them alone.

At most, he would only need to harvest them at certain times.

Fishing, on the other hand, was a very time-consuming activity.

That was because Terraria had a stat called fishing power.

Fishing rods, bait, equipment, potions, and even accessories could all increase it.

The higher the fishing power, the faster one could catch fish, and the better the results.

There was no way Drake had enough time to sit by a fishing pond all day, so he could only leave that task to Lili for now.

With her Behind-the-Scenes Supporter skill, she was well suited for all kinds of miscellaneous work.

...

"So that's the situation."

After coming home, Drake found Lili and handed her the planter boxes he had obtained from the lab.

"The way to plant and harvest these herbs is what I just explained."

"When you're around the house normally, if you see worms, butterflies, or small animals, catch them with the bug net."

"The first can be used as bait for fishing, while small animals can be sold for money or turned into food."

"When I'm out, I'm leaving all of that to you."

Lili nodded repeatedly, committing Drake's instructions to memory.

Although she had been assigned a lot of work, the feeling of being needed gave her a strange sense of reassurance.

"Don't worry, Master, Lili will do all of it properly!"

"Good."

Drake approvingly patted the prum girl on the head and said thoughtfully,

"If you really do as you say, I'll give you a reward."

Punishing bad children and rewarding good children—that was perfectly reasonable.

"Really?"

Lili widened her eyes in delight and asked tentatively,

"Then… can Lili choose her own reward?"

Drake answered with a noncommittal question of his own.

"That depends on what you want."

"Lili… Lili hasn't decided yet."

The prum girl lowered her head shyly, light flickering in her amber eyes.

Seeing her like that, Drake didn't press further.

"Then think about it for now. The reward isn't going to grow legs and run away."

The exploration of the planetoid laboratory had finally come to an end.

This expedition hadn't taken very long, and it hadn't been particularly dangerous.

Aside from being harassed a few times by harpies upon entering the Space layer, the laboratory itself was almost completely safe.

After all, it was a lab located near the spawn point, so the environment was relatively secure.

If it had been a Draedon lab in the Underground, Jungle, or even Hell… just getting close to it would probably have taken an enormous amount of effort.

Besides the Superheated Ion Blaster, which had shocked Drake, the special items from the Security Chests included two more: the Green Seeking Mechanism and the Encrypted Schematic (Planetoid).

The former could be crafted into a Jungle Seeking Mechanism, which, once charged, could point toward the Draedon laboratory in the Jungle region.

The latter was a blueprint containing the crafting recipes for many Draedon-tech items!

Once decrypted, it would unlock a series of high-tech weapon recipes.

However, the decryption process was extremely complicated and had to be carried out in order.

Drake had no intention of starting to crack the encrypted schematic during the early stages of exploration.

For him, practical supplies like the planter boxes were much more useful right now.

"I'll leave them for now. Someday they'll come in handy."

Drake deliberately placed those two special items into the storage space of the Piggy Bank.

That way, they wouldn't get mixed in with everything else in his inventory.

In addition to those, Drake had also looted a large number of gold coins—around 10 gold total.

That was far faster money than grinding monsters the hard way.

Ten gold was already a pretty respectable starting fund in Terraria's early game.

But money alone wasn't enough, because Drake had only unlocked the most basic shop so far.

Things he urgently needed, like ore and other materials, couldn't be bought with money… or could they?

"Maybe not necessarily."

A thought suddenly came to Drake.

His figure immediately vanished from Terraria and reappeared in his small house in Orario.

If he wanted to make the idea in his head a reality… he would need to borrow the power of the Adventurers' Guild.

More precisely, he would need to rely on Miss Eina's connections!

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