What if the Terrans really are saving the world?

Chapter 2 The Bound Elf Guide

After several days of struggling with the progress, Terra finally saw a glimmer of hope.

"I didn't expect the new version of the guide to require active rescue. What a bad change. This is even more likely to make newbies give up on saving the world than the old version's 'you can't right-click on the workbench'."

I glanced at the bottom right corner of my view, but unfortunately, there was no progress indicator for the goblin army invasion.

"I thought the new version would allow me to trigger the goblin army invasion without having to craft the [Goblin Banner]."

"It seems that while spawning the 'Bound Guide', it also spawns a group of goblin guardians around it."

Andrea watched as the blocky intruder turned its back to her, with smiley face bubbles rising above its head and speaking in a language she couldn't understand at all.

The sunlight slanted down in front of him, gilding his three-headed, blocky silhouette with a layer of gold.

Are they humans suffering from Oripathy? But can someone with that disease still move freely?

Or was it a stranger she had never met before?

The old goblin sized up the blocky figure: "You're covered in blocky bumps, you're practically dead yourself, and you're trying to be a hero?"

An exclamation mark bubble appeared above Terra's head: "She spoke? So this is what goblins look like as lolis in the high-definition texture pack? Cute."

The young goblin blushed and rubbed his hands together: "I'm a boy."

The old goblin scrunched up his face like he'd eaten a lemon: "Ugh~ It's not good for me to say this, but it turns out there are actually people who find goblins cute."

Terra placed the cursor on Andrea, right-clicked to untie her ropes, and then placed the cursor on the old goblin to check his health.

"Master Mode Goblin Scouts have 240 HP before being defeated, but these goblins only have an average of 40 HP, the same level as the lowest-level green slime..."

"So weak."

The old goblin's eye twitched, and he waved his hand.

Upon receiving the signal, the goblin minions immediately set off, and the old goblin himself drew his sword and charged forward, surrounding Terra and Andrea.

Once freed, Andrea used a few kicks to send the old goblin flying, retrieved her bow, and then quickly ran towards the block opening and jumped down.

However, Terra remained standing still.

"Hey!" Andrea rushed forward and grabbed him anxiously.

Just as the goblin was about to rush in front of Terra, Terra selected a dirt block from her inventory and placed it on the ground.

Soon, huge, cube-shaped dirt blocks appeared out of thin air on the grass around Terra, piling up one after another until they completely enveloped Terra and Andrea in the blink of an eye, without a single seam in sight.

"Earth wall magic? It's in the way!"

The old goblin swung his machete at the wall made of soft, muddy soil, thinking it would collapse with the slightest force.

However, what traveled from the blade to my palm was the soft, mushy feel of mud, yet the wall remained completely unmoved, like an impenetrable fortress, without even a scratch.

Are you kidding me? He used enough force to sever a spine! This isn't just ordinary soil.

On the other side of the wall, Andrea was no less shocked than the goblin.

She had never seen such magic as "block creation" before. The spell was cast as quickly as breathing, and four neatly shaped earthen walls and a ceiling were built out of thin air. They were even hard enough to block the goblin's attack.

Although Andrea's own magic was not as proficient as her archery, she knew that even the most powerful elder in her tribe would be out of breath for a long time trying to levitate a ready-made stone by a few dozen centimeters.

The cube-shaped figure in front of them, however, seemed to be building blocks, and in the blink of an eye, it enveloped the two of them in an impenetrable wall.

This blocky figure is undoubtedly a highly skilled magician.

Andrea curtsied slightly in an elven gesture: "Thank you for saving an elf. May I ask your...?"

"Mother!"

"Huh?"

"Mother!"

"What does it mean?"

Terra, with smiley face bubbles popping out of her head, circled around Andrea with an air of familiarity, even digging a hole in the ground to look up: "Is the Director in her moe-fied material this cute? Green hat, big braids, milk foam, absolute territory, leg rings, stinky feet, not bad! Now she looks even more like Mom!"

Andrea took a few steps back and leaned against the wall: "Huh?! I was just wearing boots, my feet don't stink!"

By the way, why does this blocky person have bubbles coming out of their head like a cartoon character?

"Um, Miss Elf, your feet are indeed..." The young goblin's voice came through the wall.

"I absolutely hate being talked to like that by a goblin! Shut up!" Andrea shouted, blushing and indignant, pointing a finger at Terra. "And who's your mother? I'm only 180 years old, not even an adult yet! Don't think you can take advantage of me just because you saved an elf!"

Terra thought for a moment, then suddenly realized.

"Loli Mommy!"

"Get lost! Who calls a stranger 'Mom' right off the bat?" the elf exclaimed, clutching her chest.

The smiley face bubble above Terra's head disappeared. He realized that this guide wasn't the one who had taught him in the old world. She was just a new guide who had appeared in this new world.

"So you're a crossdresser~" Terra exclaimed, a frustrated bubble rising from her head.

"A crossdresser?! Cough cough, anyway, thank you for saving an elf. My name is Andrea, and you..."

"Just call me Terra."

"Terra, using this kind of magic must be very taxing on you. These blocks won't last long, let's get out of here quickly."

Terra looked puzzled: "Why not fight? There are so many goblins, the rags they drop could make goblin banners."

"But if you're maintaining these blocks, do you still have the energy to use offensive spells? I have the fighting ability, but I don't have any arrows."

An exclamation mark appeared above Terra's head: "Director, are you going out to fight monsters?"

While the old version of the Guide Mom was very useful for checking progress and crafting recipes, her performance in combat was mediocre. She had low attack power, slow attack speed, and unintelligent AI. At night, she would open the door and let monsters into the house saying, "Sir, this way."

But Terra thought about it and realized that even if the guide died after being rescued, he would respawn on the grass near her home during the day. She could just use it as a test to see if her body was in one-life mode.

In Softcore mode (unlimited lives), Terra will drop a "tombstone" item upon death. However, in Hardcore mode (one life), Terra only has one life and cannot collect the tombstones dropped upon her own death. Therefore, the method of obtaining tombstones has been changed to have an NPC like the Guide give them to her.

Because he hadn't been able to test this point before, he couldn't explore the map by stacking lives, which caused him to keep going in circles in the forest.

Although I don't have high hopes, let's see if the guide combat AI changes in the new version. After all, the goblin AI is smarter now, so I can just go and fight it myself.

Terra was a little confused, though. Weren't the guide arrows unlimited in the old version? He opened Andrea's chat window to check what was going on.

Andrea then found herself controlled by an invisible force, while Terra stared at her empty head in contemplation.

She suddenly felt a strange will taking over her mind, controlling her mouth and making her say, word by word, "My job is to provide advice for your upcoming tasks. I suggest you talk to me if you encounter any difficulties."

"It's me who's in trouble now!" Andrea cried out inwardly.

Terra noticed a new "Armed" option in the dialogue box above Andrea's head.

Is this something added in the new version?