The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/24/2012
Posts:
69
Member Details
(Yeah, I know, it's an unoriginal name. I'm making a little story about Minecraft, as you can see. My friend said that it's a complete masterpiece and that I should share it with the world. So I took her advice and decided to post it here. Well... here you go. Enjoy. I think I'm going to post the chapters in separate posts since they're quite long.)
Part 1:
It was only a few days after the expedition began when it happened.
I was sent on a mission with a team of brave explorers. There were twenty of us total. Our purpose for the mission was to find an uncharted land for the ever-growing population of the world. Our society was overpopulated, polluted, and crowded at every corner. Smog was taking over. Everyone’s blood pressure ran at an all-time high. Finally, the governments of the countries each sent a skilled explorer to team up for an expedition to find a new place for people to live.
We were sent to the beginning of a previously unknown jungle by helicopter. Our job was to chart all the different organisms, and measure an estimate on the amount of land there was on it. After we were left alone at the edge of the jungle, we trekked as deep as we could until night time, then we set up camp. The next morning, we packed up and continued, only walking during the day.
The jungle was hot. At some points, steamier than a foggy shower. Every hour the crickets would chirp. We had to stop at certain points to keep track of the plants and animal species living inside the rainforest. We had to hike through mountainous regions in the forest; at the bottom of the valleys was a pond or two, followed by a river heading downhill.
It felt like a long time, but although it had been a couple of days, we knew we had gone far into the jungle. It was like another world, because we had not experienced such hilly rainforests in our years of exploring. Plus, there had been a number of plants that not even the scientists of the group were able to identify.
One morning, about a week and a half after our start, I stood outside my tent, suddenly noticing a chill in the air. But immediately after, the hot moist air returned. Was it some kind of forewarn?
There was a light fog out in the distance all around the temporary camp. My new friend Zane, who I met at the start of the trip, walked up to me as the grass crinkled under his heavy boots. “Only four days to go,” he said. “Then the helicopters are gonna track us and our progress.”
“Imagine that,” I replied. “We’ll be so famous for helping mankind. I almost feel bad we’ll be invading this peaceful place, though.”
“Don’t worry, man,” said Zane. “We’re risking our lives out here in uncharted territory. If we can convince the government, they just might try to cause as little deforestation as possible.”
I nodded. Before I could say something else, we heard a rustle in the dense trees. As we looked in the direction the sound came from, another crewmate stepped out of the brush. It was Amnesha. She was one of the explorers from the new eighth continent, Oceania. To be more specific, the Marshall Islands. It is the least populated continent as it is mainly composed of islands. But it is still overpopulated for a few measly islands.
What caught our eye was that she was holding a large cat. It looked out of the ordinary. “Whoa,” I said. “That’s a spotted leopard, isn’t it? I thought they were extinct!” Zane didn’t know what to say.
Amnesha rolled her eyes. “That’s not a leopard,” she said, stroking the cat’s fur. “Its eyes are wider. Its tail is curved differently.”
“How can you be sure?” Zane asked. “What if they evolved in this secluded forest? Untouched by modern day?”
Amnesha whispered something in the cat’s ear, and set it down as she watched it scurry off into the bushes. She evened out her blond hair, and said “You’ll never know. You could be right. But so could I.” She proceeded to dismantle her tent as the day had begun and we needed to keep moving. Now that I thought about it, we needed to pack up as well.
In the next hour, our humidity detectors ran extremely high. Although barely any sun reached the floor and it was foggy, our clothes were soaked from humidity alone.
“They say that the government chose each person according to their attributes. What’s yours, Zane?” I asked some time later.
“Endurance,” said Zane. “I could run a mile and just shrug it off. You?”
“Me? Well, I never give up. When I get the motivation for something, I don’t stop until I’m dead.”
“Vladimir of Russia is quite witty, and he’s an expert with tools. He’s one of the scientists for a reason.”
I looked over my shoulder and noticed Amnesha had barely even broken a sweat. Zane knew what I was wondering, so I guessed “environmental resistance?” He smirked and nodded.
It was nightfall before we knew it. The fog wasn’t helping in the least bit, and not even our strongest flashlights broke the fog by any significant amount. Although it was night and the moisture in the air was dense, I suddenly got the chill down my spine. Only this time it was stronger. I looked over and asked “Zane, do you feel cold?”
Zane made a face and said “No… why?”
As I looked across him, I suddenly see a pair of piercing, unblinking eyes. My heart stopped. I will never forget that image, an image of purple eyes that shimmered in the darkness. I gasped and pointed to the direction I saw the pair of eyes. Zane pointed his flashlight in a quick reflex. But suddenly, it was gone. It had just disappeared. “What is it?” Zane asked.
“I saw something,” I said, shuttering.
It was barely a second later that a black haze swiftly knocked Zane off his feet. Immediately, I pull out my pistol and fire at it, but as soon as I did, the thing vanished. At that moment, I felt myself being thrown into a tree. Everyone else had a look of panic as they desperately searched for the thing. Feeling blood on my face, I tried to help Zane up, only to be knocked down again. In that instance, I noticed more… two, three, four dark figures, ambushing our group. They kept disappearing and reappearing, striking each person in the head or the back. Each strike, I heard the sound of a cracking bone. That’s when I felt the swollen bump on my head. My vision began to blacken. The last thing I heard was the echo of my crew’s screams.
The last thing I saw?
Those eyes.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/24/2012
Posts:
69
Member Details
I suppose I could just post Part 2 while I'm at it.
Part 2:
The birds commenced chirping, slowly shaking me to consciousness. I was still on the ground, exhausted. I could barely move, so I just stared at a few blades of grass. That’s when the thought hit me. We were attacked. By what, I didn’t know. Whatever those things were, I didn’t want to run into them again. I forced myself to sit up, and I wiped the dirt and dry blood from my face. I scanned the area, hoping the crew was safe. What I saw shocked me. There were stains of blood all over the grass, bushes, and tree bark. One tree had a small splatter of blood, and I’m sure it was mine.
I stood up to investigate further. I almost fainted from the sight of a bone that caught my eye. Surely, it belonged to one of us, as there were flies covering a third of it, meaning it was fresh.
I began limping across the tall grass, looking for any signs that the crew was still alive. It was like a hidden path; a blood stain here, a broken bush there. But eventually, it all stopped, leading to nothing. I reached into my pocket, and I realized the attacker made my pistol fly out of my hand when I hit the tree. All of my gear was gone. Just my clothes and my bare hands. How I would ever survive out here was mission impossible.
I’ve seen many old television shows about people being lost in the woods. From what I remember, they had some sort of gear or tools. I had nothing. Angered, I threw my fist into a tree. Suddenly, I hear a plopping sound, and the place I hit the tree at flew to the ground. I stared at the piece of wood. Then I picked it up. This must have been one of the new species of trees we charted earlier, as no tree back home was ever that sensitive.
I tried to bend the piece of wood. Frankly, it was very bendable, so I took the time to carve it into a stack of wooden planks. Somehow, I think making something at least would serve some purpose.
I trekked through the jungle tiredly, but I knew I couldn’t just give up and die. I had to survive until the end of the week, when the helicopters would come to get us. But, a crewmate had a device that showed the helicopters where we were. Wherever it is, I can only hope I see the helicopters in three days.
I continued punching down trees, even hitting them with my planks as my knuckles began to bleed. It wasn’t long before I was exhausted yet again. I sat on a fallen log and I held my massive stack of planks. I dropped some of them. With this amount of bendable wood, who knows what I could make? I noticed several cuts and splinters tearing up my shaking hands, but only now did I feel the sharp pain in them. I couldn’t do this with only my hands, so I put them to work one last time. I put several planks together and constructed a table. Now I had something to rest my materials on.
Above my head was a low-lying tree branch, holding out a red delicious apple. I carefully plucked the apple from the stem, and checked it for any parasites. After staring at its red glow, I bit into it. My mouth was filled with the apple’s taste. I munched on the apple to its core and tossed it aside. Feeling relieved, I began construction once more. I tore up some of the planks evenly and made sticks. Sticks are very important for making the hilt of a tool.
When I heard a rustle in the bushes behind me, I spun around. To my relief, it was only the leopard that Amnesha was holding yesterday. I motioned it to come closer and that I meant no harm, but the leopard only stared at me with its green eyes and scurried away after.
I think the cat was trying to warn me. Perhaps there were other creatures in this forest I hadn’t seen yet, many of which could be dangerous. The thought got me working on another project. I sharpened two of the planks and molded them with a thick stick. I had made myself a wooden sword.
I made the table to be both light and sturdy, making it easy for me to carry. I picked it up in one arm and held my planks and sword in the other.
Suddenly, I felt the ground sink slightly below me, and my shoe filled with water. I looked up and realized that I had just stepped foot into a swamp. Believe it or not, the swamp was much less humid than the jungle. When I walked, my shoes made a squishing sound. As I went to go look around, I noticed a cow trotting around feeding on the marshland grass. It mooed. As much as I hated it, I realized that I had to kill it later for food and hide. I was still hungry after eating the apple, so I eventually brought myself to slay the cow with my sword. I dragged it to another fallen log, sat down, and skinned it. I would have no room in my hands if I had gotten the meat from it. I held the hide to the table and weaved a large backpack with multiple pockets. I used up the entire hide, so the backpack was nearly as big as I was. I stored the planks, sticks and the freshly-cut meat in it. That’s when I realized that I would have to cook the meat to avoid getting sick.
I sat down by the table again, and got out my planks and sticks. I sharpened three planks and attached them to two sticks. I had just made a wooden pickaxe. I walked over to a chunk of stone and began chipping away at it, collecting each block that fell from it. Although this stone was still extremely rough, I could just barely bend it. I held one plank and used it for carving the stone. Then, I set the stone on the table and sharpened them, creating a stone pickaxe. I attempted to create some sort of furnace, placing cobblestone in a box-shape, and adding a few bars to an opening on the front. Yes, that looks like a good stove. But, it would be impossible to make it work unless I supplied power to it.
The shining glow of the sun washed over me as I realized it was sunset. The image of the attackers came to mind again, and immediately I searched for a place where I could spend the night. But the swamp was almost barren. There weren’t many trees and most of the land was simply empty. I couldn’t bring myself to reenter that jungle, not after what had happened. I pulled the sword out from behind the log I sat on and held it close. The sun disappeared behind the horizon almost instantly.
I wandered the swamp for about half an hour, searching for anywhere that I could call a temporary shelter. I stopped as I looked down in front of me. There was a gaping hole in the ground, leading to an underground cave. I wanted to go inside, but it was far too dark.
I almost considered making a house out of the wooden planks, but I realized they wouldn’t make much as I didn’t have a sufficient amount. Plus, a house was far too big to make on the table and my hands were swollen and still bleeding. So I set the table down and created a stone axe to chop down trees more sufficiently. I walked over to a tree and tested out my new axe. It worked quite nicely, getting the pieces of wood down without much effort.
I had just finished crafting the wood into planks when I suddenly heard a groan. It seemed like it was human-like, but something didn’t sound right. It was low-pitched. I looked around, hoping it was a crewmember.
“Brrrrhh.”
That’s when the human walked out from inside the cave. I almost went to greet him in relief, but the instant I saw his face, I was taken aback. His face was green and his eyes were narrow, but he was wearing the outfit one of the crewmembers had worn the day earlier. But he looked extremely sick and diseased, almost as if he had been… zombified. His arms were raised up and pointing at me as he walked.
The human made a gargling sound. I wasn’t sure what to do. At that moment, the human pushed me into the table and attempted to beat me into a pulp. I shoved him away with a yell and reached for my sword. I tightened my fingers around the hilt and swung it at the zombie. I landed a gash in his chest but he didn’t seem to feel pain. He kept walking towards me. I jabbed the sword into his shoulder and wrecked his joints, but he still kept trying to get to me. In a mixture of fear and anger, I kicked him in the stomach and sliced his torso in half. Finally, he stopped moving as both parts of him dropped dead onto the now bloody ground.
Whatever had happened to the crew was a mystery to me. Seeing one of my teammates as a serious real zombie made me wonder if this happened to the others as well. Why it didn’t affect me, I had no idea.
Truth of the matter is, there’s no hope left for the rest of the crew. Not in a place like this.
I’m on my own now.
keep on going! I seriously think its good work and that you should keep on writing. although i feel as though it would be a little harsh to just keep him completley alone (sorry i cant spell) at the least try to work a dog or the ocelot he saw into the mix but i would prefure (again cant spell) if you could add another person... a female charactor maybie? even if its too typical im sure you could do somthing with it. as well keep me posted for when the next part comes out. your friend dibra!
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/24/2012
Posts:
69
Member Details
Thanks for the feedback. I'm trying not to post too rapidly since I just joined, but currently I have up to twelve parts. I have the entire story in my head, though not finished.
Part 3:
That night felt long and short at the same time. After killing one of my crewmates who no longer had a mind, I laid my stomach over my table. A minute later, it was daytime, so I must have fallen asleep on the table. I was growing hungry and I was out of energy. I was a complete mess. My hands looked dirty and encrusted in blood, both from me and that zombie. My shoes were soaked by the marsh water. My clothes were drenched in sweat and blood, and my face was still throbbing from coming into contact with that tree. As this point, it didn’t look like I would go far.
With the sun risen, I only have a matter of time before it’s night again, and who knows what other devilish creature could attack me next. I barely fit the furnace into my backpack, and managed to squeeze in my tools, planks and sticks as well. I carried the table in one arm and my sword in the other.
Out in the distance, I see the wide landscape of a desert. To the right of it was a river, streaming between the desert and the rainforest from which I had come. Normally, I wouldn’t walk into a desert in this condition, but I noticed a large hill made of sand sitting in front of the river with the jungle behind it. I thought that it would be a good place to set up a shelter, so I began trudging my way there. As I entered the field of sand in front of the pyramid-shaped hill, I noticed a spring of clean water about ten meters away. Gratefully, I set my bag, table, and sword down by the bank and reached my hand into the water. I always had a sharp eye for clean water, and this was by far the purest I’ve ever seen. I drank a handful, feeling a relieving chill going down my ribs as I drank it. Since I knew I would be staying here for a while, I took off my shirt and bathed in the water. It probably wasn’t a good idea bathing with all the dirt on me, but there was a small hole on the bottom of the pond, where I figured there was an aquifer. I took my chances and kept drinking the water, even though I saw the barely noticeable mixture of blood in the water.
Once I felt refreshed, I sundried and put my shirt back on, when I noticed I would have to wash it soon. I took out my wooden pickaxe to begin digging a large hole in the hill. The sand was easy to remove, making a hole large enough to fit me, but it was nothing close to a shelter. I created a narrow opening about my height and width, and eventually I hit a wall of stone. At that point, I thought of making a room of sorts, like a wide square inside the hill. However, I had only gotten through a small portion of stone when my pickaxe suddenly broke. Discarding the pieces, I went back to my bag and fished my stone pickaxe. Immediately I continued digging. In no time I created a room about five meters in length and width, but the height was barely at my level, so I dug up a little bit to increase the height of the room. It wasn’t pretty, seeing as the interior’s walls were made of stone, dirt, and sandstone. I brought the table into my newly-carved room and set it down. I also brought in the rest of my tools and materials. Noticing that I had a large amount of cobblestone and sand after digging this room, I needed to have more space. I grabbed some wooden planks and built a chest to hold my spare items.
With some daylight left to kill, I ventured out with my sword and pickaxe, and began to look around for anything I could use for resources. I headed back into the swamp and continued walking until I reached the cave I found the previous night. There was a fair amount of sunlight reaching into it, so I stepped inside and began to look around. I knew that there could be something lurking in here like the zombie I fought, but I had to take risks to survive. I eventually reached a part of the cave where the sunlight was dimming, but I looked at the wall to the left of me to find something inside the stone. It looked like black rocks, but I couldn’t be sure. I dug it out, and to my surprise, it was a chunk of coal. There was plenty more inside the wall, and I dug out all of it. I ended up with five pieces of coal. I wondered what I could use it for, and that’s when I remembered the furnace. I could use the coal as a power supply and cook the meat. I caught myself drooling, thinking of a juicy steak in my teeth.
I rushed out of the cave and returned to my little hideout. I pulled the furnace out of my backpack and set it on the floor. I dug a tiny room with a wide shelf to fit it in. I placed the furnace in the tiny opening and jammed it between the makeshift shelf and the low ceiling I dug the room out of. I decided this new expansion would be the furnace room.
I stuffed the two chunks of meat I could salvage from the cow into the furnace, and at the bottom of it, I placed a piece of coal. I struck the coal piece into a specific part of the furnace, and instantly it fired up. I quickly dropped the coal into the furnace and jerked my hand back to avoid getting burned. I could barely wait, but in time the fire inside the stove stopped burning and the coal was nothing but dust. I carefully removed the chunks of meat, and my eyes widened. I had successfully cooked the meat.
Licking my lips, I took a bite out of one, tasting a flavorful explosion. I had always loved steak, but I couldn’t imagine making it to save my life. Now, I got to work on setting my axe, planks, sand, and stone into the chest I constructed.
I looked out the opening and noticed the sun was going down. I was almost struck by panic as both the zombie and the dark figures emerged from my head. I took out all of my remaining planks and got to work on making a door out of them on the table. After I cut a few holes in them for a window, I used the spare parts for making the hinges. When I was done, I forced the hinges into the side of the opening at the entrance. Now I felt much safer.
But something was missing. As it was getting darker, I realized it would be impossible to see in here. I tried to think of a solution to this problem. I needed to work with what I had… Well, I could use the coal to fire up the furnace, but that would be wasteful. I looked at the sticks lying on the floor. I had five of them. Suddenly, the light bulb in my head flickered as it sparked an idea. I grabbed four of the sticks, and broke them into smaller sections. Then I grazed a piece of coal over the top of each stick, suddenly sparking a small flame on it. Smiling at my brilliant idea, I placed the torches by the wall opposite the furnace room. I burnt out all but one so I could save the rest for later. One torch gave off enough light to allow me to see the whole room.
Now, I have never felt more grateful to be safe. I could finally relax. I happily lied down on the rocky floor and fell asleep. Perhaps I actually will make it out alive.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/24/2012
Posts:
69
Member Details
Thanks. I can't come up with a name due to a glitched imagination. But I'll try to get a better name.
Part 4:
Swoop.
It sounded like air. But it was more of a quick, rushing air played backwards. I woke up instantly, startled by the sound in the midst of the silence within my new shelter.
I looked around but nothing was there. A second later, I looked up as something tiny slowly drifted down through the air, landing upon my nose. I pinched it with my thumb and index finger, examining it closely. It resembled the shape and pattern of a snowflake. However, it was purple. How could a purple snowflake exist? What is this?
The snowflake seemed otherworldly. It crumbled to dust a minute later. But I wasn’t too surprised. Even the unthinkable has happened already. Zombies. Sudden attackers. Being the last unlucky fellow left in the team. And now, purple snowflakes? Well, at this point it would be wise to expect the unexpected.
The sun was beaming through the holes in the door. I looked out the door, at the field and swamp in the distance, and I said to myself “Round Three.”
Out of nowhere, as I took a step, I was suddenly inflicted with a stab of sore pain. I stood there, afraid to move again. Perhaps I overworked myself yesterday and my muscles couldn’t go on. But I couldn’t take this day to rest; maybe another day. I had to look for food, and I was running low on materials.
With each aching step, I grabbed my stone axe and headed out to the swamp to cut down more trees. With some of my new planks, I crafted a little salad bowl to hold my water in. After, I returned to my spring and filled my bowl to the rim. I drank half of the water in it, and stored it back in my shelter for later.
With each joint screaming at me to stop, I sat down at the base of the sand pyramid. It looked like I would pass out. But I noticed by the position of the sun that it was in the afternoon. If I fell asleep now, I would be open to any creatures of the night. Grunting, I managed to stand up. I was about to head inside, when I suddenly hear the bleating of a sheep. I looked around, but I couldn’t see it.
I followed the sound. It turns out the sheep was hiding out by the riverbank behind the hill. There were two of them, each drinking water from the river. Slowly drawing my sword, I cautiously snuck up on them, lunged forward, and slew the sheep.
It took all of my remaining strength to bring the sheep over the hill. When I finally did, I took a large portion of their meat to cook later. I took the wool off of them as I knew it would be helpful to use for sleeping on.
Once inside the shelter, I ate the second piece of steak from yesterday, and placed a chunk of lamb in the furnace, and turned it on. I was almost out of coal, and I don’t think I would be able to cook the rest of the lamb I salvaged. I realized that a meat-only diet wouldn’t be so nutritious after a while, and that I would have to go back into the jungle at some point for more apples. The thought made me shiver.
I decided I really deserved a proper rest. So I went to the table and got my wooden planks. I put some together in a rectangular-box fashion, and then I tightly patted the wool in it, creating a basic bed. When I was done, I heaved the bed into the corner of the room. It was a good thing I stopped there, because suddenly my muscles couldn’t take it anymore. I dropped onto the bed and stayed there. The sun was down, and luckily my torch was still burning.
As soon as I closed my eyes, I hear it.
“Brrrrhh.”
There it is again. It’s a zombie. I didn’t move, listening closely. It sounded like it was outside, searching for me. I started shaking. This was the wrong time to be fighting a zombie. Not in my condition.
I began to hear its footsteps in the sand. They kept getting closer. And suddenly, there it was, staring at me through my door with its swollen eyes. I stopped moving. I stopped breathing. I didn’t even move my eyes or blink. But it was too late. It saw me. It stared me right in the eyes, and all of a sudden it started banging on my door, trying to get it open. I was gripped by terror, because I couldn’t move. I used up all my energy.
That’s when I was struck with familiarity. Not only was the zombie from our crew, but I knew him.
It was Zane.
But I knew I couldn’t open the door; it was no longer the Zane I knew. His good spirit was gone. Even if he did make it through that door, I don’t think I could bring myself to kill him. I was lucky to have made the door as sturdy as it was.
Suddenly, I hear an object fly through the air. Zane stopped hitting the door. I looked at him to see why he stopped. Then I see it; an arrow had pierced through his head. Zane went limp and dropped to the ground with a thud. I was in shock. Who could’ve done that?
Then I see something walk up to Zane beside my door. I wasn’t sure if I could believe what I was seeing, but it was a skeleton. The skeleton was holding a bow in its hands. It reached down and grabbed Zane by the back of the shirt, and dragged him away.
I was baffled. I didn’t know how to react. There’s just too much chaos unfolding before me.
The next morning came rather quickly after the incident. When I managed to stand up, I was surprised that my bones didn’t ache even more than yesterday. I suppose I killed the right sheep for this bed. It was a very soft one indeed.
I decided that I had enough energy to return to the cave and mine for coal. I put the necessary items in my backpack- my pickaxe, my torches, and my cooked lamb- and stored everything else in the chest. I figured it wouldn’t be the best idea to bring my bowl of water as it could spill easily. So to refresh, I drank the rest of the water.
I looked at my sword and noticed how beaten-up it’s gotten. I didn’t want it to break at the wrong time, so I thought ahead and forged a stone sword to last longer. Now that I thought about it, I wouldn’t want my pickaxe to break either, so I made a second one.
Now that I was completely prepared, I stepped out the door and closed it behind me. I cringed at the dents and scratch marks there was on it from last night. There were even a few drops of blood where the arrow had been. I really wished Zane hadn’t been zombified by whatever caused it.
Turning my back to the battered door, I set off for the swamp. I was there in no time, and I stopped at the entrance to the cave. The sun was in the mid-morning position, meaning I had plenty of time to explore the cave. Without another thought, I entered the cave and began looking for coal. I found some rather quickly, in the same place I found some last time.
As I ventured deeper into the cave, it began to get dark. So I lit one of my torches, revealing a much longer path than I expected. I set the torch down by a wall as I mined up some more coal. Next to the patch of coal, I noticed a few shining silver objects buried within the rocks. I mined the strange rocks, but there was still a hefty amount of normal stone covering it. I tapped my finger on the silver object, making an echoing ding. I didn’t know what to think at first, but I figured I must have hit some iron ore. I stored the pieces in my backpack along with the coal.
Suddenly, I hear a faint hiss. There was something in the cave. My eyes shot to the left, and in the darkness beyond my torch’s reach was a large bundle of red eyes. Instinctively, I whipped my sword from the backpack and held it in front of me to warn the monster. The thing crawled into the light and revealed itself; it was a spider, the largest spider I’ve ever seen. It resembled a tarantula, only it was twice as wide as my height. Showing no fear, I stayed my ground. The spider hissed again and jumped at me full force. I blocked its jump and shoved it back, swinging my sword at it. I cut it in the shoulder, which only seemed to make it angrier. It lunged again, but this time I darted my sword through the air, stabbing it in the abdomen while it was in midair. It hissed one more time, then it fell motionless. I shook it off my sword, now stained with spider blood.
I finished mining up the coal and iron ore in the area until my first pickaxe broke. Then I went in deeper and found more coal and iron. There was a large amount of iron in this area, probably enough to last me a week. When my pickaxe showed signs of breaking, I turned around and headed back, bringing my torch with me. I noticed that the spider’s body had decomposed rather quickly, leaving behind a bundle of its web string. I figured it would be a good idea to take it in case I want to make something like a fishing rod for when I go to the swamp again.
I left the cave soon after. To my shock, it was night time. Careful not to take a wrong step, I tiptoed to the field, checking for any monsters. I heard a zombie grumble behind me. Without another thought, I spun around and stabbed it through the heart. When it dropped down, I kept sneaking back to the shelter. I looked around the tree, seeing if the coast was clear. I saw the door about twenty meters away. I was just about to take a step forward when I stop abruptly. There’s something over there. It was tall. As I looked on, the thing turned around.
Oh my gosh.
It’s those eyes.
I’m filled with fear instantly. I had seen what these things can do. And I wasn’t going to be its next victim. This thing was probably three feet taller than me, and seeing it stand still, it had pitch-black skin. Perhaps it was made of shadows themselves. As I studied it more, I see a few little particles surrounding it.
Purple snowflakes.
My pupils shrink. That thing can disappear at will. I start putting the pieces together. A purple snowflake landed on me this morning. That must mean it teleported away when I woke up, which is what made that swooping sound.
Rage suddenly replaces my fear. That thing was watching me while I was sleeping. For what reason, I didn’t know. It was likely waiting for me to return. I patiently waited until it turned its back. When it finally did, I sprinted at it and flung myself into the air with my sword drawn. I successfully hit it in the back as I heard it say “Ooph!” in a strange blurred voice. In that instant, I heard the swooping sound as it teleported away. I turned around quickly as I see the thing staring at me from the edge of the swamp. Suddenly it teleported again, this time right in front of me. Before I had time to react, it shoved me with immense strength into the wall of my shelter. I knew I couldn’t go inside, as it could follow me in there. Again it warped away, this time much farther. I braced my sword as it started running towards me, teleporting side to side while it was running, almost ninja-style. I swung at just the right time, but it teleported again a millisecond before I could connect my attack.
I started to get dizzy trying to keep track of its movements. Just then I was rammed into the wall again, feeling an intense pain in my shoulder blade.
The shadow teleports a few feet away and starts making its way toward me again. That’s when I realized the terrible mistake I just made. All twenty of us were no match for four of these. But one against one? I knew right then and there that I was going to be killed.
“Barold. That’s enough.”
The shadow stopped moving at the sound of those words. I remained sitting against the wall, unable to grasp what I just heard. I knew that voice. The shadow stared at me without blinking.
I hear a strong wind as a flurry of purple snowflakes and black wind suddenly spirals around near the shadow. The snowflakes stop spinning and most of them disappear. There was a person standing in the middle of what used to be the small tornado.
I gasped. It’s Amnesha. And she’s still alive.
But something didn’t look quite right. She seemed to be wearing a silver crown made of purple stone, and she was in a black sinister cloak.
Amnesha stared at me and said “You’re a tough one, aren’t you? To challenge an Enderman head-on? You fool.”
“What?” I asked, trying to ignore my back pain. “That’s what those things are? How are you still alive?”
“Foolish human,” she said. “You and your kind really thought you could just walk into this land and take it as your own? To help your dying species?”
“What are you talking about, Amnesha?” I asked, pretending I didn’t just see her teleport out of thin air.
“This is my territory,” Amnesha began. “And my people claim it. I’m not going to let anyone wander into my land. I foresaw you humans coming to this world many years before, so that’s how I managed to get into your little expedition. I had my Endermen ambush the group while I turn the rest into zombies. You, however… you were immune to that spell. You are something else.”
“Something else?” I asked, confused.
“From what I see, you’re a semipure. One that strives to be the best. You don’t give up easily, as I can see you built up quite an egg nest here.”
“You didn’t have to kill us. We could’ve talked things out.”
“That wouldn’t be necessary. Could you imagine you filthy humans living alongside Endermen in my empire? It would be chaos. Plus, they hate being looked at. All in all, I want to keep this place untouched by filthy hands like yours.” Now, she did have a point. My hands weren’t looking so nice.
Amnesha took a step closer. I knew something wasn’t right. Half her face seemed to be made out of the same skin as those shadow people. On that half, her eye was purple with no pupil; just plain purple that shimmered like the shadow’s eyes. What also alarmed me was that she had one leg and a tentacle, instead of just a pair of legs.
“I’m going to let you live,” she continued, “but only for my amusement. I love to see little humans struggling to survive. I’ll have my eye on you, so don’t try anything funny.” That’s when I noticed her razor-sharp teeth.
She stepped back, and told the shadow “Barold, return to the End at once.”
“Yes, my queen.” The shadow vanished instantly with no other sign of him besides a few snowflakes.
Amnesha turned to me again. “Human, until the day you die, I’ll be watching you. Have fun.” And with that, she giggled quite evilly as she surrounded herself in snowflakes and black wind, and disappeared.
I sat there, unable to comprehend what just happened. Immediately, I got up without another thought and headed inside. I sat my bag on the floor and deposited some coal into the furnace and inserted my chunks of iron ore, trying to melt off the stone around it.
I took a seat on the bed while I waited for the iron to cook. So these shadows… Endermen, if I heard correctly… they’re Amnesha’s people. It’s as if she’s the ruler of a society, in a totally different world. So, all this time she was only setting us up, to backstab us when we least expect it? It didn’t make a lot of sense, but what did was that she just wanted to protect her world from outsiders.
I hear the furnace’s sizzling sound stop, and I knew the iron was done. I peeked inside the furnace with great surprise. I took out the silvery objects, which were now full refined bars of iron ingots. I could make some great stuff with this, I thought. There was still some coal left, so I didn’t bother inserting more. Instead, I cooked the other half of the chunk of lamb while I ate the first. When it was done, I put it into my backpack and went to the table. With three of my new iron ingots, I managed to craft a sharp and efficient iron pickaxe. This won’t be breaking for a long time.
Imagine what other resources I could mine with this. And imagine what I could make of those new materials. In anticipation, I crafted an iron helmet, chest plate, leggings, and boots to prepare me for monsters. Subconsciously, I knew the helicopters were supposed to pick us up today. But I figured Amnesha took the tracking device and either destroyed it, or took it into her world… the End, if I recall.
Well, time to go find this End.
If Amnesha really is the ruler of this world, she’s probably been doing this for centuries. Time after time, killing people who wander into this land or watching them starve. It’s like a giant game. And I’m not going to become another statistic.
I’m not going to fail.
I said clearly, knowing she was probably watching me, “Okay, Amnesha. Game on! If it’s amusement you want, it’s amusement you’ll get!”
Plot twist? Yes. YES. This is getting better, faster.
I have a prediction for the future! I can't wait to see if it turns out like that or not. ^^
This is overall awesome.
If you'd like, I could think about a name for it.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/24/2012
Posts:
69
Member Details
Tell me, how do you think it'll turn out? Chances are, another plot twist will shoot it down. xD
Go ahead and think of a name if you'd like, and talk as much as you want. I can't tell you how much I love feedback. It's like food for my mind.
Part 5:
Never have I been more grateful for sleep. When you’re trapped in the wilderness, you’re attacked by monsters, and your own teammate turns her back on you, you really become exhausted physically and mentally.
I was taking a breather at the spring, drinking water through my bowl. I refilled it several times to keep me energized for longer. Staring into my reflection in the water, I suddenly sprout an idea. I went into my shelter and got out some sticks and the long piece of string I collected from the spider. I held the sticks together and tied the string on both ends, making a makeshift bow. It wasn’t exactly the best thing in the world, and I didn’t even have any arrows. Well, there was no harm in practicing. Just in case something attacks me again, I put on my iron armor, which was both light and strong.
I considered going deeper into the cave now that I could make more torches. But as I looked around, I haven’t explored much of the surrounding environment. To the east, there were more desert hills and a mountain made of what appeared to be sandstone.
I made my way across the dune, avoiding the cacti that were in this area. There was another spring here. I studied the front of the mountain. There were ancient hieroglyphics inscribed in it that I couldn’t read. There was a picture of a face on some parts of the hieroglyphs. It had square black eyes and appeared to be screaming. The face disturbed me in a way. If that was a monster, I’d hate to meet it. But given the circumstances, I would expect to run into that at some point.
Beside the hieroglyphs was an old, dusty wooden sign. As I examined it, it appeared to be printed in plain English. It read “The sand that won’t budge will lead to your riches.”
Now that I took a better look around, there was a doorway that was blocked by extremely heavy sandstone that not even my pickaxe could break. Thinking of a solution to the riddle, I kept heading east and I stopped at another dune.
Another spring was half-buried under the rocks beside this dune. I suppose I have enough water to last quite a long time. I climbed the hill, and I saw something in the distance. I rubbed my eyes to make sure it wasn’t a mirage. But it was still there. It was some kind of village. It seems there are people here after all. I could only hope it wasn’t home to a bunch of zombies or Endermen.
When I got to the front of the village, I was surprised to see different creatures residing here. They closely resembled humans, they could speak, and they had many human qualities, as I saw houses and farms around.
As I stepped foot into the village, the villagers all stopped their activities and stared at me. I raised my arms, taking this opportunity to be awesome, and said “Fear not, villagers! I am an adventurer clad in iron armor! I mean no harm!”
Some of the villagers approached me. One of them, dressed in a purple robe, said “You do appear to be an adventurer indeed. It has been a long time since we had a visitor!”
“I have come in search of assistance. I survive off of only meat and I need something with higher nutritional value,” I said. But I didn’t want to be only a taker, so I added “In return, I will give you items to expand your village.”
“It would be our pleasure, good sir,” said a villager. “We have so much excess food, we would be happy to give some to you, brave explorer.” But before I could say anything, the villager added “But some mere building materials are ineffective when we only have two-thirds of our capacity.”
“What are you trying to say?” I asked him.
“Our population began dwindling less than a week ago, when we were suddenly attacked by a horde of ruthless green monsters that resembled humans.” I figured he was talking about zombies.
“How many of them were there?” I asked.
“We believe there were more than ten, perhaps fifteen of them. And lately, following their lead, the other creatures have decided to attack as well. We believe if the new monsters are slain, the others will be discouraged. Could we ask this task of you?”
I looked at the villagers around me. All of their eyes were upon mine. “Okay, I will help. Or, at least, I will do what I can with just this sword,” I said as I held up my worn stone sword.
The villagers all gathered in a huddle away from me. There weren’t that many of them, perhaps ten to twelve. After they were done speaking, the one in the purple robe said “we have a plan that will assist both you and us. Do you see that large jewel over there?” He pointed to a large blue jewel on top of a pole that glistened in the sunlight.
“Yes, I see it.”
“That jewel is the largest diamond we have ever found. It rests at the heart of the village and contains our very spirits and blessings.”
“Sounds pretty cool, but what about it?”
The villager said “This will require the skills of each of our professions. Our blacksmiths are going to forge the jewel into a powerful sword. Then, the librarian will make it stronger at the enchantment table. Finally, the farmers will get to work on making you the food you requested.” He turned to the others. “Is everybody ready? We have until sunset.”
The villagers scattered and began to work on the said plan. The one with the purple robe, who I figured was the chief, said “It is a shame to be using our precious diamond, but we must do this to save our village. Keep that sword in good hands when it is done forging.”
“You can count on me,” I said. “I will protect your village.”
The leader allowed me to lounge in one of the lodges to regain my energy. I was offered a few pieces of bread by the wheat farmers, which I ate rather quickly. A few minutes later, the chief walked in and said “your sword is almost ready. Come take a look.”
I followed him to the blacksmith’s shop, where he did his work over a small container of lava. The blacksmith kept many items in a nearby chest and was excellent with forgery. I knew this the second he pulled a glimmering blue sword out of a large furnace-like container. The sword glowed brightly with a red hue as it had just been taken out of the container sitting next to the molten lava.
I watched as it was taken to the librarian, even though I didn’t understand what a bookkeeper could do about a sword. As I observed, the librarian was a very talented man indeed. The enchantment table they spoke of was a table made of black stone with a floating book over it. This book contained the greatest knowledge about weapons and their hidden abilities.
The librarian placed the sword above the book and it floated in midair. He began saying a kind of spell or enchantment, I guess. Whatever he said though, it was definitely something important. The sword was suddenly engulfed in a strange light as it glowed with an intense purple hue.
I took the sword from where it was floating and looked at it. I could see the reflection of me and the librarian within the blade. At the hilt was a leather patching with two words engraved in it; Soul Bond.
“I trust this sword to you, with a piece of my magic,” said the librarian. I nodded and looked out the window. It was sunset.
I stepped outside as the villagers began retreating into their homes. “You’re our only hope. Please help us,” said the chief before he went inside the church nearby.
Night settled in as I stood outside and waited. I looked around the outskirts of the village. To the west and south was the desert with the sandstone mountain in the distance. To the east and north was a grassy, wooded land. Then I heard it; the grumbling of zombies. If there really were fifteen, this would be the rest of the crew. I saw two zombies approach the side of a building. The diamond sword pulsed with energy, as if it was feeding me its own adrenaline. I ran towards the zombies and took them out instantly. I was very surprised at the power of this new blade.
A spider jumped onto the roof of a low building. I climbed after it and whipped the sword through its stubby neck at light speed. Another zombie was wandering through the village, trying to find a house with people in it. Without fear, I jumped off the roof and came down with an epic stab. Three down, twelve to go.
I feel a thud from behind me, as if something hit my back armor. I turned around, seeing a skeleton with a bow pointed at me. He let loose another shot, which I blocked, and I punched the bow from his hands, shattering it as it hit the gravel. I wasted no time in destroying the skeleton, and spun around as I heard a zombie banging on a door. I took it out immediately.
I heard a pandemonium of grumbling. I turned around to come face-to-face with a huge gang of zombies. In my head, I quickly counted eleven in all. That was the rest of them. I slice two of them, and another tries to grab me by the shoulder. I shove it away and stab at it. In a sudden fury powered by the sword, I madly swung at the group without stepping back. In no time, I finish off the rest of the zombies.
But that wasn’t the end of it. The rattling of bones and hissing penetrates my ears. I look around, trying to find where the sound came from. Then, over the mass of dead bodies, I saw a spider crawling around a torch-lit pole, and a skeleton was riding on top of it.
The long range of a skeleton, the agility of a spider. I stared at the duo, saying to myself “Challenge accepted.” I ran toward them, hearing the ding of an arrow bounce off the blade, and jumped forward to attack. The spider dodged my attack, giving the jockey time to fire another arrow. I dodged the arrow, continuing my pursuit. The spider continued to zigzag around while the skeleton shot more arrows at me.
Suddenly, I felt a strong vibration as I felt something trickling down my arm. I looked at my arm, and at that moment, the pain came to me. I had been shot. In a few seconds, the blood was covering a large portion of my lower arm. I yelled in pain and fell against the wall of a house.
From inside a house, I heard somebody say “No!” I couldn’t let the villagers down. But the pain and the arrow must have something to do with a nerve ending, as I could barely move. The only thing I could do was rip the arrow from my skin and throw it like a dart at the spider. It missed.
The skeleton let the spider come to a halt as it focused a finishing shot on me. It was about to fire the arrow that could end my life.
In the close distance, I heard a howl. Me, the spider and the jockey looked in the direction the sound came from; the forest. Out of nowhere, a gray object darts from behind the trees and into the village at a blinding speed. It lunged into the air and fires itself like a torpedo, directly into the skeleton. As if in slow motion, I saw each and every bone fly out as the gray object dashed through the skeleton’s chest. The skeleton fell to pieces instantly. When the thing landed on the ground, I saw that it was a wolf. The wolf snarled at the spider, who tried to scurry away. But the wolf wasn’t letting it loose. He chased after the spider, grabbed hold of it, and tore it to pieces.
The wolf trotted to me and I expected it to eat me as they did in the storybooks. Ironically, he sat down next to me and rested his head on my lap.
A few villagers, considering it safe, exited their homes and immediately began to treat my puncture wound. It was doused in an herbal disinfectant and wrapped in gauze. When I got the strength to stand up, I thanked the villagers for helping me.
“No, thank you, brave explorer,” said the librarian. “You have defended our village and risked your life. You even suffered a potentially fatal injury if left untreated.”
I put my hand on the bandage, which was making the pain sore, but at least calming it a bit.
The leader came out from the church building and declared “For your selfless deeds, I grant you permission to keep this valuable weapon as a thanks from us. If you ever grow hungry or weary, we will supply you with whatever you need.”
“But still,” I said, “Thanks so much, guys. You still saved my life, which is plenty more than enough.” I pointed to the mountain. “My house is just beyond that mountain to the west. If anyone needs me, I’ll be there.”
As I began walking away from the village a few minutes later, I suddenly hear a villager call out “Wait!”
I turned around to listen to what the villager had to say. He was holding up a few shiny objects. “I found these in the pockets of those monsters. Perhaps you could use them.”
He gave me the items. One was a clock rimmed in gold. The other was a compass.
“Thank you,” I told him as he walked back to the village, saying “You’re welcome.”
When I began walking, I noticed the wolf was following me. I supposed he wanted to protect me. But cautiously, I patted him on the head. He opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out like any dog would.
When I returned to the shelter, I realized I called it a house back in the village. I suppose that’s what it is now; until I can find a way out of this place or have Amnesha take me back to civilization, which I doubted. I opened the door and let the wolf in. I set the clock on the table, where it said that it was 1:00 AM. I set the compass down as well. I realized that I left the bowl outside, but I was too tired to go out and get it.
I introduced the wolf to the place. “It’s not much, but I’ll see what I can do to improve. We’ll be here for a long time, anyway,” I said to the wolf. “Just you and me against the world, buddy.”
I needed a name for the wolf if he was to stay with me. I thought for a moment. I was amazed by the way he charged into that skeleton in mid-air. He wasn’t even afraid. He was a charging rhino.
“Rhino,” I said. “I think I’ll call you Rhino.”
Rhino stood on his hind legs to reach my eye level, and then he licked my face. When he was back on all fours, he wagged his tail. I fed him my last piece of lamb. Then, I removed my armor and set everything down beside the chest.
I climbed into bed, but Rhino preferred lying on the floor beside it. When I started thinking, it felt good to be the guardian of the village. Now they can grow and prosper. The other benefit was that I have a near-limitless supply of food thanks to them. And probably the best part was that I have their one sacred treasure as my weapon. And they helped me to my feet when I was shot with an arrow. I really had to owe it to them. And then, this wolf, Rhino, protected me from the spider-jockey.
Maybe I’m not all on my own after all.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/24/2012
Posts:
69
Member Details
Part 6:
Shortly after I was awake, there was a knock on the door. I was almost surprised, but when I got to the door, it was a villager. He was holding a chest similar to the one I made earlier. When I opened the door, his face was relieved to see me alive and well. At the sight of the villager, Rhino wagged his tail.
“Good to see you, brave explorer,” said the villager. He set the chest down carefully and opened it.
“Good morning to you,” I replied, trying to be polite.
“We most certainly have not forgotten your heroic efforts, and we have brought you the food as promised.” I took a peek in the chest, which was a little chilly inside because a few blocks of ice were in it to keep the food cold. I saw several loaves of bread, slices of meat, some apples, and seeds. In the corner of the cooler was a bucket of milk.
“Wow, you guys really outdid yourselves here,” I said, closing the chest. Looking at the dark red stain on my bandage, I added “this will definitely help the healing process.”
The villager said “It’s the least we can do. We cannot thank you enough. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must get going. I have many crops to attend to. Have a nice day.”
“You too,” I said as the villager began walking away. I closed the door.
My house was beginning to get a little cluttered. This was a good opportunity to expand it by one room. On the opposite side of the furnace room, I used my stone pickaxe to excavate a chamber slightly larger than the furnace room. It had a shelf made of dirt and stone that extended across its width, and I placed my food chest on the shelf while placing the material chest in the diagonally opposite corner. This would be my storage room. It was just a good enough size, as my stone pickaxe broke when I had finished digging it.
With more space to roam, Rhino paced around the room happily with his mouth gaping. Then, he spun in a circle and sat beside me, as if he was anticipated to go on an adventure with me. But I noticed he was about to start drooling, so I went outside and led him to the water spring. While he drank the water, I picked up my sand-covered bowl, which I left outside the previous day, and washed it in the water. I scooped myself some water as well and drank it. Then, I stored the bowl in the food chest.
I eventually agreed with Rhino, as I had yet to solve the riddle of the sandstone structure just to the east. I loaded my backpack with my iron pickaxe, my torches, some food for me and Rhino, and my diamond sword. I put on my iron armor. Finally, we headed out to the mountain.
It didn’t take long to reach the mountain. Immediately, I began trying to decipher the hieroglyphs. There was one word etched into the inscribing in English: Butte. So that’s what this thing is called. The Butte. I vaguely remember a butte as being a large desert rock. It was a fitting name for this ruin.
Pondering the riddle was no easy task. The sand that won’t budge… it was confusing. Perhaps the sign was referring to the blocked doors that I couldn’t pass through?
Suddenly Rhino barked. I looked at him, asking “What is it?” He was looking at the ground. I studied the ground, but there was nothing but sand and our footprints. They led a trail to the Butte, like a long track.
Wait a second. Some of our footprints were missing. In one section of the trail, there was nothing. Inspecting it, I placed my hand on it. This wasn’t sand in the ground, it was sandstone.
The sand that won’t budge.
I dug out the block of sandstone. Beneath it was an old worn-out switch, attached to a line of red dust. Hoping for the best, I reached down and flipped the switch. Suddenly I hear the sound of moving mechanics as the two heavy blocks are pulled back and out of the way.
“Nice job, Rhino!” I exclaimed as Rhino inspected the open doorway. Prepared for anything, I walked inside.
The entryway after going inside the Butte was a stone staircase spiraling down. There were no longer many hieroglyphs, and most of the place was already lit with torches. As Rhino and I climbed down the staircase, I picked up any coal and iron that I found within the walls.
When we had climbed down for about fifteen minutes, we came to a dead end in the path that was beginning to flatten out. In the wall in front of us were several chunks of rocks and a block of sandstone. I remembered the sand that won’t budge, so I dug into that wall with slight hopes of finding something. When I dug it out, there was pitch-black in front of me, and I couldn’t see well. So I lit a few torches.
Nothing could have ever prepared me for this.
Underneath the Butte was an enormous underground ravine. A nearly endless tunnel with sharp, jagged rocks on all sides, and I found myself right between two of the Earth’s tectonic plates. I found a natural staircase of rocks leading down to the bottom of the ravine, but I wasn’t ready to head down yet. I sat down and ate an apple, and then tossed a piece of meat to Rhino. When I felt ready, I began climbing down the rocks, with Rhino cautiously following me.
Waiting for me at the bottom of the ravine was a spider. I slew it as quickly as I could before it attracted any attention. I was starting to feel the humidity down here. As I scanned the walls and floors, a glimmering object caught my eye. In the corner between the floor and wall was a sparkling stone. I set a torch by it and mined it. By the looks of it, I had mined some gold ore, which was still covered in little rocks. I finished mining the patch of gold, figuring I could smelt them like I did the iron ores.
That’s when I realized how proud of myself I was. I was mining gold. Few people in the world experience gold firsthand like this.
Rhino and I ventured deeper into the ravine, finding anything useful. There was a lot of gold down here, as well as a strange red stone that when mined, it collapses into dust. Still, I stored the red powder in my backpack for now.
When we saw a glow in the distance, we approached it. It was a small pool of lava. As we got closer, we began to see the heat waves and my skin was starting to feel hot. Rhino, however, kept walking ahead and sat near a dark corner of the ravine. I was about to ask him why he went there, but then I heard a hiss. I flick back with my sword drawn, ready to engage the spider. Wait a minute…
That’s not a spider.
It was some kind of green creature that stood at my height, and was shaped somewhat like a domino. It had four tiny legs as well. But the most shocking feature was its face. It had the screaming face I saw on the hieroglyphs. Its square black eyes and open mouth didn’t settle with me so well.
All of a sudden, it hissed loudly and flashed white. Before I could do anything, the creature exploded violently. It felt as powerful as TNT. I flew back over the entire lava pool and landed roughly on my back. I got up as quick as I could after getting a vision blur. The creature was gone, and it seemed that it was a suicide bomber of sorts. But it had been so silent, like it was sneaking up on me.
“Wow,” I said to Rhino. “What a creeper that was.” I didn’t seem to have any injuries besides a few scratches and a dent in my chest plate. I’m lucky it wasn’t so close to me when it exploded. If anything, Amnesha probably summoned it to warn me. I can still hear her words in my head; I’ll be watching you. Maybe I shouldn’t be down here, looting all her jewels and minerals.
I looked into the small crater the creature made. I saw a piece of iron ore and stone, but there was something at the center of the crater that didn’t look like anything I’ve found before. I carefully picked it out of the earth. It was a diamond. As I held the sparkling aqua gem close to my face, it seemed as if it was letting off its own glow. But I knew it was just the lava behind me that was doing that. Rhino looked up at me, as if urging me to go on.
I stowed the diamond in my backpack, and said “Let’s see if we can find any more of these,” making my voice echo off the huge walls. As we walked on through the ravine, it seemed to open up into a large cave that was much wider.
I looked up and I saw a large crack in the high ceiling, allowing a beam of sunlight to reach the cave floor far below. I was awestruck. This placed seemed like a huge underground sanctuary, seeing the gray light land upon a few small, battered buildings. What were they doing down here?
They were small houses, and only two of them remained standing. They were both surrounded in wooden rubble. I placed a torch to allow more light into the houses. Many of the walls were covered in scorch marks, and the roofs were nothing but a few flimsy beams holding it together. It was as if there was once a village down here, burned down by a great fire.
Before I could enter one of the houses, I saw a wandering skeleton attempting to keep watch of the area. Rhino growled very silently. I pointed to the skeleton, and Rhino dashed right into it, shattering its bones like he did to the jockey.
I noticed many parts of the walls were missing too. The entire place, with what little sunlight was given to it, made a very depressing atmosphere. I entered a house through a broken doorway with Rhino sitting outside to guard the house while I explored. There was a chest in the foyer of this small house. Inside, I found a note. I read it out loud, but just loud enough for me and Rhino to hear it; “To anyone that has found this note, I have fled as far as I could go with the rest of this village.” I stopped, trying to read the handwriting, which was hastily written. “Our village was burned down by some divine power. We are the last humans left as far as I know. If you have found this, the village was likely buried under the earth as they promised. And, even more likely, we might all be dead. Please, if you’re a human, leave this land now. It is far too dangerous.”
I set the note back in the chest as I processed what I just read. Divine power… that must be Amnesha. She hates humans. I clung onto the hope that there just might be humans out there. But I realized that if a group of humans tried to escape, Amnesha wouldn’t have allowed it. They had to pay for their mistakes.
There was also an empty bucket in the chest. I took it as it was just able to squeeze into the backpack.
I entered the next house and lit a torch on the table. Another scribbled note was sitting beside the table; “They didn’t like us for our newfound ability to travel between dimensions.” Whoever wrote this one must have been in more of a hurry than the last guy. There was a bookshelf in the corner of the room with just a few books that hadn’t been completely singed by the fire. One of them was purple with the pattern of a snowflake on it. Curious, I picked up the book and set it on the table.
The cover was badly burnt and I couldn’t read the title. I flipped through it, but apparently all the pages were frustratingly burnt.
Except for one.
I looked at the page. I saw pictograph of a vertical rectangle that was drawn in black. Beside it was a paragraph. I read it. “To create this portal, place blocks of obsidian in the fashion you see here, then light it with a Flint and Steel. Obsidian must first be mined with a diamond pickaxe, as it is cooled lava and a very dense material. Once activated, you will be allowed access into the-“
The rest of the page had been burnt.
If the cover of this book was a purple snowflake pattern, then the page mustn’t say more. That portal could be my ticket to the End that Amnesha had spoken about. No wonder Amnesha didn’t like humans; they experimented with dimension-warping abilities, which only she and Endermen could do. Finding obsidian could take a lot of work, and waiting for the lava to cool could take months. There had to be a way for the previous humans to get obsidian more easily. I know that water could probably speed up the process…
I looked into the new bucket, and as expected, it was rusted in dark red and brown. This bucket was used for water. And there’s a lava pool nearby. If I found an underground water source, I could put the lava out.
But what about mining it once I cooled it off? The book said that only diamond pickaxes could break obsidian. It took three planks of wood for me to craft a wooden pickaxe, then three blocks of stone, then three iron ingots. Presumably, it would take three diamonds to make a diamond pickaxe, and I had one already.
And finally, how would I find a flint and steel? I already had pieces of iron, but flint? In the past, I heard that flint is related to gravel in some way, so perhaps I should start digging through gravel to find it. So, after that, I just use the flint and steel to light a fire in the portal frame, and then the portal would open up? It was a lot more complicated than it sounds.
So first, I have to find water and throw it into the lava to cool it off, turning it into obsidian. Next, I needed to find two more diamonds to make my diamond pickaxe so I can mine the obsidian. Then, I have to find flint by digging through gravel, create the flint and steel, and light the finished portal frame.
Well then. Let’s get mining.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/24/2012
Posts:
69
Member Details
Very nice prediction, and actually a good idea, if I hadn't come up with an idea for the ending already.
Ha, poor main character is confused with the portals. How do I come up with this? Well, I came up with the main plot and didn't intend to make it a long story. But my friend gave me this awesome portal idea with the burnt village and such. We're almost co-authors.
Part 7:
Before I exited the broken house, I checked out the other two books on the shelf. One was about building snow golems and iron golems, which at the moment did not intrigue me. The other, whose title was not burnt, said “Monster Encyclopedia.”
I opened the book to the first page, which was about spiders. The only thing that seemed noteworthy was that some of them can be poisonous. The next page was about skeletons, which was too burnt to read. I flipped through the pages, seeing pictures of zombies and spider-jockeys. I stopped at a page that had a picture of the green bomber-monster. It was called a creeper, which I called it earlier coincidentally. The next page was on Endermen, where I read that “Endermen can teleport at will using an item within them known as an Ender Pearl. If you looked one in the eyes, it will attack suddenly.” I wanted to read on, but parts of the pages were missing.
I flipped to a page on wolves. “Unlike the wolves found back in civilization, these wolves will befriend you upon offering it a bone or two.” The next page was on a creature called an Ocelot. I saw a picture of what looked like a small leopard with wide green eyes. “A very shy creature, Ocelots will run away very easily upon seeing a human, unless the human is holding fish in his or her hand.” So this was the cat Amnesha was petting a week ago. She knew what it was and it probably knew her. I suppose she was right. It wasn’t a leopard.
The next page was about Silverfish. I didn’t understand, since silverfish are simply small bugs. Instead, I see a picture of a gray worm with particles of dust flying around it. “Silverfish only reside in strongholds. Not much else is known.” Good thing the text stopped there as most of the page was singed. The next four pages were burnt to a crisp as well.
On the last page there was a header that said “Ender Dragon.” I read the half-burnt page. “The Ender Dragon is the guardian of the End. It is a massive fire-breathing reptile covered in black scales and has purple eyes.” There was a sketch of the dragon, but no real picture. I read on. “The information and sketch were only what adventurers were able to gather as the End is an extremely dangerous place. “
There were no more pages left, so I returned the book to the shelf. I picked up my backpack and walked out through the fire-eaten doorway. “Come on, Rhino,” I said as Rhino got up and started following me. My first mission was to find water. I didn’t want to risk leaving this place and getting locked outside. Plus, the entrance to the Butte was quite far from here. So, I had to find an underground well.
We walked past the pool of lava and turned into a passage we hadn’t been to yet. My feet and hands were getting sore again, but this was the wrong time to drop out. This new path led into another cave system. I dug out some rocks, looking for diamonds, but there were none.
After some more time digging and fighting monsters, I was starting to run out of torches. I had lit an entire path of torches to the right hand side of the wall, so I could find my way back. I looked to the left and found a large clump of crushed stone what had a tough texture, but it was light and easy to dig. Hoping it was gravel, I kept digging. Eventually, a few pieces of a dark-gray material fell out of the wall. I picked them up, and to my relief, it was flint. I stored it in my bag, which was full to bursting.
I decided not to take any more stone, coal or iron as I had plenty of it, and I needed to save space in my backpack. Near the end of the cave, there was a small lava-fall oozing from the wall and spreading over the floor. I began to sweat again and told Rhino to sit a distance away so he didn’t overheat. He let his mouth hang open so he could get some air.
I placed blocks of cobblestone in the lava’s way so it wouldn’t overflow. When I walked to the other side, I noticed that there was a diamond buried behind the lava-fall. Carefully, I dug out the stone around it, reached my hand out, and snatched the diamond before the lava could overheat me or flow into the rock. My skin burned just a bit after I removed the diamond. Satisfied with my find, I set the diamond in the side pocket of the backpack, with the first one.
When I reached the end of the cave, I was out of torches. I looked around, trying to work with what I had. I reached into my backpack and took out a piece of iron ore. I slowly chipped the ore away with my pickaxe, using it as a chisel. I refined the ore the best I could, turning it into a non-smelted ingot. I threw the leftover stone chippings aside and took out a piece of flint. I stood in the corner of the cavern and smacked the flint into the ingot, suddenly sparking a flame that landed on the floor. Smiling at my makeshift torch, I put the flint and steel in my pocket for later use. I knew that the fire wouldn’t last long on the stone ground as it didn’t burn well as wooden sticks did.
I dug at the wall to try finding any diamonds. When I hit the pickaxe against a specific part of the wall, a sudden stream of water forced out of the hole in the wall, spraying me in the face. I shouted and jumped back at the feel of chilling water on my skin. When I recovered, there was a large puddle of water accumulating on the floor. I figured I must have run into one of the many aquifers that connect to the springs on the surface. And it was likely there was a huge chamber of water beyond this wall. The water began to feel warm. This was probably because the sudden rush of water startled my skin, so I couldn’t tell the temperature at first.
Rhino barked. I flicked back and looked in his direction. He began growling. I kept looking until I saw the clutter of eyes that a spider has. As it crawled into my view, it was similar-looking to the huge tarantulas that dwell in this place. However, its hairs were dark blue. I wasn’t frightened at all since this spider was only half the size of the regular spiders. Rhino tried to grab it, but this one was extremely fast. It scurried onto the wall and around the lava. I didn’t have time to get out my sword again, and the spider sprang onto my head and bit into my shoulder with a loud hiss. I yelled and shoved it off of me, trying to buy time. Angered, Rhino ran around the lava and seized the spider, tearing at its back. Trying to help Rhino, I kicked the spider and attempted to beat it into the wall. After several hits, it finally stopped moving.
I almost felt guilty, seeing the spider’s squashed body pressed into the corner of the wall and floor. But I didn’t have time for that; I was feeling an aching pain where the spider had bit me. I examined the wound, and noticed a tiny drop of dark green fluid beside one of the two puncture holes its fangs made. It had just missed my armor.
That’s when it hit me. Its fangs bit me there. This spider was probably one of the poisonous ones found in the book. Trying to combat the poison, I ate one of the slices of bread and an apple from my bag. Hoping Rhino was okay, I handed him some more meat.
The pain was still there, but it didn’t stop me. I let the flowing water fill up the bucket. Then collected some string from the spider, rolled it into a ball, and plugged it into the hole to keep the water from spilling out even more.
I continued my search for diamonds, holding the bucket carefully. When I didn’t see any, I hiked back to the pool of lava so I could throw my water into it to begin the cooling process. When I finally found my way there, I set my bucket down for a short rest on the ground. The food I ate wasn’t having much of an effect on the bite.
Rhino nuzzled me with his snout. I looked at him, rubbed his head, and asked “What’s the matter, boy?” He stood up on his hind legs and pointed his nose upward. I didn’t understand if he was doing some sort of dog trick, so I didn’t respond. He nuzzled me again, this time with more force.
I finally stood up, thinking he was pointing at something with his nose. Above me was a low-lying cliff that I would be able to climb if I jumped high enough and grabbed the ledge. Then, as I scanned it, I saw something lodged in the side of the cliff.
My third diamond!
The diamond’s aqua surface sparkled in the light of the lava, and I looked at Rhino to pet him and tell him how sharp of an eye he had. Out of nowhere, though, I heard a faint sound, and he pushed me away and barked loud enough to bounce off the cave walls.
I stepped back and looked at the cliff again. An Enderman teleported onto the cliff. As I observed its movements, it plucked out the chunk of stone containing the diamond with little effort. Then it laughed very slightly. “Hm hm hm hm.” Knowing it would anger, I looked it in the eyes despite how scary they were. Suddenly, I heard the swooping sound as it warped out of sight.
I guess Amnesha didn’t want my grimy hands on that diamond. Out of sudden anger, I shouted “Hey! Give it back!” like a kid getting his lunch stolen.
From a faint echo in the ravine, the Enderman spoke very softly in a muffled voice. “Come and get it.”
Swoop.
I was suddenly hit in the back, feeling a dent in the armor. When I recovered, the Enderman was still holding my diamond ore, using it as a weapon. Holding that heavy block of stone, and given its superior strength, the Enderman was extremely dangerous. Rhino tried to jump at it, but it simply teleported away. When it came back, I stepped away as quickly as possible, trying not to take a brick to the face. However, I wasn’t watching my footing, and suddenly I slipped on the bucket behind me. I fell back and the bucket launched forward, spilling a great deal of water.
Suddenly, upon coming in contact with the water, the Enderman let out a distorted scream and fell to the floor, apparently being mauled by the water for some reason. I watched as its body disintegrated, and a dark teal jewel remained in its place.
So that’s their weakness. Water.
I picked up the jewel, figuring that this was the Ender Pearl that was mentioned in the book. When I looked to the floor, I found that the Enderman had dropped the rock with the diamond in it as it touched the water. I mined it carefully with my iron pickaxe, seeing as it was showing a few signs of weakness. Satisfied with my third and hardest-earned diamond, I put it in the side pocket.
Coincidentally, when the water spilled out from the bucket, most of it landed in the lava. Since water was less dense than lava, it sat on top of it, slowly hardening the surface of it. While I waited for the cooling process, I reentered the abandoned village and sat at the table in one of the houses. I took out my last sticks and my diamonds, and began working on a diamond pickaxe. In about fifteen minutes, a surprisingly fast time, I finished crafting the pickaxe. When I held it up to the light of the torch, it sparkled.
I returned to the lava pool, which was no longer a pool at all. Amazingly, all the lava had cooled far sooner than expected, and now all I saw was a patch of translucent black obsidian. I went to work on mining it, which took a very long time considering how dense the material was.
When I put it all in a pile after mining it, I realized that it was far too much to fit in my bag. This means that I would have to take several trips back and forth from my house to collect it all.
I sighed at this problem as Rhino sat next to me. Again, I had to work with what I had. But that’s the thing; what I had was the problem. And I couldn’t make another backpack as I didn’t have any leather. I threw out all the scrap stone that didn’t have any minerals. I managed to fit a very small portion of the obsidian into the bag, and I didn’t want to throw out anything else. I felt my other pocket that didn’t have the flint and steel, and fished out the Ender Pearl. If I could find a way to teleport with this, going back and forth would be much quicker and I wouldn’t have to work my sore muscles more than I had to.
I held the Ender Pearl in the air like an idiot, and shouted “Home!” Nothing happened. Sighing again at my stupidity, I tossed the Ender Pearl behind me.
Suddenly I heard the swooping sound, and I found myself about five feet behind where I was just standing with the Ender Pearl at my feet. My jaw dropped and something just “clicked” into my head. I teleport wherever the Ender Pearl lands. Trying again, I tossed it near Rhino. Suddenly I heard the sound as I warped right in front of him, making him jump in surprise. I grinned, thankful that I stumbled upon this pearl. I noticed a couple of purple snowflakes drifting around me and slowly settling on the ground, then crumbling to dust.
I wondered how I was going to head back up with Rhino at the same time. I always saw in those fantasy television shows that someone would hold on to another, and they both warp simultaneously. Testing this theory, I threw the Ender Pearl on a high cliff that led to the entrance, then immediately hugged Rhino. At that moment, I found myself on top of the cliff, and Rhino was next to me. He was a little shaken by the sudden teleport, so I tried to be more gentle. I threw the pearl again, this time aiming at the wall I came in through. I hugged Rhino again as we both teleported next to the wall. This new plan was working out great, and the pearl wasn’t even scratched from hitting the floor.
The staircase was too narrow to have any throwing room, so I simply put it back in my pocket and we climbed up the stairs. My back was starting to ache from the heavy bag, and my infected shoulder wasn’t helping at all. But we finally reached the entrance of the Butte. I saw from the very faint glow that it was night again, probably in the early morning. I turned the corner to the entrance, and immediately I froze.
There was a creeper waiting for me at the doorway. Apparently, I must have just desecrated its temple. I reached my hand back and grasped my sword, prepared for the worst. I saw the moon far behind it, and the way its shadow cast a dark light over the faint glow made him look horrifying. Plus, its eyes were twinkling slightly purple, as if it was ready to dish out some pain in an innocent way.
Unusually, the creeper spoke to me slowly, in a very soft voice.
“That’s a nice everything you have there… it’d be a shame if something were to happen to it…”
I considered this as a threat. I stepped back, frightened at what it said. Rhino was behind me, too scared to engage the living bomb.
“I suggest you stay out of my way,” I told it. “Unless you want to get hurt.” I was not about to let a day of mining rare loots down the drain.
The creeper did not respond. Instead, its eyes returned to black and it began to slowly and silently creep in my direction. It hissed, meaning it was about to explode. In quick succession, I stepped forward and swiped with my sword, killing it rather quickly. It didn’t detonate, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Rhino walked a few steps, seeing that it was safe.
We walked back home as quick as we could, hoping that nothing else was stalking us. At my doorstep, I saw that there was a book sitting against my door with a letter attached to it. It read: “Dear Brave Explorer We wanted to see you again to give you this, but you were not at home, probably adventuring as we expect of you. It would be our pleasure to aid you in your crafting techniques as our villagers are all skilled craftsman. With the help of the librarian, we put this book together that contains every crafting recipe we know. Don’t thank just me; we all threw in our bits of knowledge! Sincerely, Chief.”
I was starting to think that I seriously did a good job impressing them when I first arrived at the village. But it was nice of them. I picked up the book and headed inside.
It felt so good to be back at home, but there was still work to be done. I quickly built another chest, which would hold my epic loots, and set it on the shelf beside the food cooler. I made two more furnaces and shoved them into the cramped shelf in the furnace room, which I knew for sure could not hold more than three. I then inserted an equal amount of coal into each, and stored iron ore in the first two, and gold ore in the third to smelt. I fired up the furnaces, then I set my book on the table next to the clock, which said 2:14 AM. I used some of the sticks I left in the chest to make several torches, three of which I lit and hung outside the door to keep monsters away.
Once my bag was unloaded, I kept my sword, flint and steel, and the Ender Pearl. I left the obsidian on my floor since I was going to use it later.
I considered it to be a little bit dangerous and a hefty job to bring Rhino with me back to the Butte. I told him to sit as I closed the door, hoping he wouldn’t try to follow me. This was the first time I went somewhere without him since we met.
I got back to the Butte and dropped the Ender Pearl all the way down the stairs, teleporting to the bottom instantly. I walked to the ravine and threw it as far as I could to the obsidian mine. When I teleported, I was still a small distance from the obsidian I left there. I didn’t know whether or not I could use it for a certain amount of times, so just to be sure, I walked the rest of the way to the obsidian.
I stored up all the rest of it in the backpack. Then, I teleported my way up the ravine and out of the Butte. There were surprisingly no monsters around other than a skeleton way far off in the distance. I returned home, impressed with my torches at the front wall, and opened the door. Rhino wagged his tail and tried to jump on me in happiness. I guess he’s an over-positive dog.
I emptied the obsidian on the floor, making a large pile beside the table. I removed the finished iron from the furnaces and stored them in my loots chest. I took out the gold, quite happy with how pure it looked, and stored it away as well. I put the flint and steel on the table, and the Ender Pearl in the loots chest. I considered reading the recipe book before bed, but it was late and I needed sleep more than anything. Classically, I drank some of the milk from the cooler before I went to bed. I was not sure how they made it, but the milk from the villagers’ farm was very tasty. And I somehow felt relieved of the poison.
I climbed into bed, putting away my armor and thinking that I would build the portal when I awaken. It was funny; the idea of portals seemed like nonsense just last week. Now, I’ve risked my life several times to find the materials to make one. My hands were becoming battered and scratched again, so now was the time to get some rest.
The image of the creeper standing at the doorway to the Butte came to my mind. It was frightening that it was there, as if it knew I was going to be there. Then, its eyes. They didn’t look black, instead a shade of purple. And it spoke. Threatening me of everything I had in my backpack, my hard-earned loots, even my house, possibly. It was as if it had been possessed to bring me this message…
Then it hit me like a punch to the face. That voice.
It was Amnesha’s.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/24/2012
Posts:
69
Member Details
Apparently she has great control over all the creatures in this world. Almost like Hunger Games, coincidentally.
Get ready for the best plot twist ever.
Part 8:
Today was the day I was ready to give Amnesha a piece of my mind. I wanted to show her how far I’ve come since I got here. She stabbed us in the back without solving things with words. She left me here to die. She only kept me alive for her amusement. And she threatened my progress through that creeper.
And to portray the power of good, I was going to try settling things nonviolently. So if I was killed by her, at least I would have had a good spirit. I had to dig deep down into the pits of Heck just to stay alive. Surely, I had every right to be bothered.
But I felt good about myself today.
It’s probably overconfidence turning to suicide, but I can’t just sit here in the overworld and be a source of entertainment. I built myself from the ground up. I had to hunt for my own food, starting out with measly wooden tools. I made my own house. I saved a village from destruction. I befriended a wolf. I fought many creatures, even killing one of Amnesha’s own henchman… though accidentally. I even mastered the Ender Pearl, as I practiced teleporting and throwing the pearl this morning.
I had gotten to work on building the portal frame by making a large vertical rectangle out of obsidian, standing up. When I finished, I took a rest inside the house.
Remembering that I called it home earlier, I smiled. After building up quite an “egg nest” as Amnesha called it, I was really impressed with what I had here. This place really was starting to feel like home.
Before leaving to activate the portal, which I built outside in the field, I made sure I took care of things first. I made a large bowl and filled it with meat for Rhino, since I didn’t plan on bringing him with me. If I died in the End, I wanted him to live a full life, so I also opened the front door and kept it open. I then bathed in the spring again, making sure my clothes were clean so I would look presenting.
I went back inside and sat down on the bed, opening the recipe book and wanting to take a look at it for what could be my last time. There were a few recipes on every page, including basic tools like axes, shovels, and swords. I found that I could make another clock by placing gold in a round fashion, then filling it with the red dust I collected at the Butte. I could also make a compass in a similar way by using a round of iron instead of gold and using the red dust for the pointer. What was interesting was that I could make a map by surrounding the compass in paper, which can only be made from sugar cane. Apparently, the dust from the red stone was used in making powered contraptions such as pistons and redstone torches, which are crucial to operating these things. So the dust was like an alternative to electricity since the atoms in the dust were powered with similar energy.
When I closed the book and slid it into my backpack, I was reminded that I should probably visit the village to let them know where I was going and to thank them for their gifts. I set off for the short walk to the village and Rhino followed me there. Upon arriving, the villagers smiled at my presence and some of them greeted me.
“Welcome back, adventurer!” one of them said to me.
“Hey,” I said. “It’s good to see you again. I would like to thank you guys for putting this book together.”
“You’re very welcome,” said the villager.
“I would like to tell you people something very important,” I said as more villagers crowded around me. “Today, I am going to activate a portal that will take me to a new dimension. Please, I do not recommend that you try to enter this portal, as the world beyond it is very dangerous. I do not know if I will come back alive, so I wanted to say my goodbyes if something does happen to me.”
“But, brave adventurer, you must be safe. If something happens to you, we won’t have a true leader.”
“What?” I asked. “You mean to say that Chief isn’t your true leader?”
“Of course he is,” said the villager after a short pause. His face looked grim.
Not sure what to say, I asked “What’s the matter?” The villager shook his head slowly.
“Chief passed away last night.”
My eyes widened. “What? How?”
The villager took a deep breath. “He was a very elderly man, although you couldn’t tell. He had the will to stay alive until he was certain someone else was capable of leading the village. That someone was you. He wanted to die knowing that the village would still be safe without him. He used up the last bit of energy he had to give you that book. He passed away shortly after coming back, knowing that his life was complete.”
After hearing this, I was close to tears. But I knew I couldn’t show any weakness, not in front of my people. It felt strange thinking it, but it was true. These were my people now, and I was their leader. I knew they would look up to me when I first arrived, but I would have never thought they would to this extent. I was trusted with the greatest responsibility by the chief himself.
“Well,” I began. “I’m not sure if I really know much about leading a village.”
I saw the librarian emerge from the group. “That won’t be a problem,” he said. “The diamond we crafted into your sword contained our very spirits and blessings, as Chief put it. His spirit, along with all of the other villagers who have ever lived on this ground in the past, are all within that sword. Their spirits dwell within it and they have become a part of you, adding their strength to yours. Why else did the enchantment table engrave ‘Soul Bond’ to the hilt?”
I smiled. It was relieving to know that the souls of so many villagers have accompanied me this whole time, which is probably why I haven’t died after all this.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll lead this village. But I must enter the portal first. I will bring the sword with me to give me strength.”
The villagers were nodding, allowing me to take care of business. I bid them farewell and thanked them for their appreciation. Then I started walking back home. Rhino had been quiet the whole time as he knew what was going on.
I returned home and continued preparing for my trip to the End. I wanted Amnesha to be impressed with my progress, so I packed every valuable item I had; my diamond pickaxe, the Soul Bond, the Ender Pearl, and the recipe book, which was already in there. I also put in some food, in case the End was a huge place. I also made and packed more torches. I knew for sure it was going to be dark, since Endermen were practically shadows. In case I needed to build something, I brought some wooden planks, stone, iron and gold ingots, and the red dust. My backpack wouldn’t hold much more, so I decided that that would be enough. Finally, I wore my iron armor, which I tried my best to repair, but couldn’t.
I picked up the flint and steel and walked over to the portal. This was the moment to see if the frame really would sprout a portal. I set the flint and steel over the frame, and sparked a fire.
Suddenly, the fire floated to the center of the frame and stretched to fill the interior. Then, all the fire turned into a purple swirling vortex with purple snowflakes floating out of it. I shouted “Yes!” The portal worked, and I was certain that the End was just beyond it.
I turned around and looked at Rhino, who was staring up at me. “Sorry, Rhino. You can’t go with me,” I told him. He stood up and licked my nose. I hugged him for what seemed like a long time, and his tail was drooping. It made me sad. If I died in the End, I would be letting Chief down, who trusted the lives of his people in my hands. I would also be letting Rhino down, since I didn’t want him to think this was the last time I’d see him. So then, failure is not an option. I have to stay alive.
I felt a chilling wind coming from the portal, welcoming me in a non-welcome way. As if the wind was speaking to me, saying “come in, I dare you.”
Not showing any fear, I stepped into the portal. My vision was suddenly clouded with purple, I heard a blaring noise, and I felt myself spinning as I was being pulled into a totally different world.
When my vision cleared, I was suddenly overtaken by a hot feeling. I looked around, inspecting the new environment. I was standing on a pink-red rock, which I saw all around me. I was standing in the center of a large, yet not deep, depression in the ground. This must have been a huge cave, since the ceiling was far above me, again made of that pink-red stone.
I looked to the right, suddenly startled by a huge flow of lava that was dangerously close to me. I jumped back to avoid getting burned, and I saw that the lava flow came from a long trail that came down the depression, originating from a hole in the ceiling.
I noticed that there was fire burning on many parts of the ground. I was starting to get the impression that I must have traveled to Heck. I began walking, holding up the Soul Bond in case anything was going to attack me. I climbed the ramp out of the depression, and I was amazed by what I saw. There was a large gang of humanlike figures nearby. Out of curiosity, I approached them.
They weren’t humans. They looked like zombies, but they looked more rotten. Half of their bones were visible, and their skin was pink. A tiny portion of green slime was oozing from beneath their skin and onto their bones. However, despite their hideous appearance, they were holding gleaming golden swords in their hand.
I stood there and stared at them, unsure of whether to run or fight. Most of them stared at me, until, ironically, one of them spoke.
“Well, look what we have here! It’s a human! It’s been a long time since we’ve seen you chums around here.” Its voice was scratchy, probably from decay.
“Um, who are you guys?” I asked.
The zombie raised his sword and shouted proudly “We are the Pigmen! The knights of the Nether!”
“Um… okay, I guess,” I said. Since his voice was raspy, I could’ve misheard what he said and mistaken End for Nether, which both sounded similar. And even though they were zombies, they call themselves Pigmen. Now that I took a good look at their faces, or what’s left of them, their faces resembled pigs. So that’s what they are; Zombie Pigmen.
“Do you guys know where the ruler’s castle is?” I asked them as they kept looking at me.
“Of course we do,” said the Zombie Pigman. “It’s that way, but don’t try to go in. He doesn’t like trespassers.”
“Okay, thanks.”
I was feeling uneasy as I walked away in the direction he pointed. First off, it was extremely hot in here, and in the distance I could see many heat waves taking up the air. Second, I don’t see any Endermen in here, only Pigmen. Well, I haven’t explored this place enough, so maybe I’m just overreacting. But the Pigman called the leader “he.”
I was starting to get a bad feeling about this.
I lost my train of thought as I heard a strange slapping sound. Like the sound of goo hitting a solid surface. I looked to the right and saw a huge cube of dark red magma with yellow eyes staring at me. It jumped into the air, falling into many slices of magma in the air, and then reformed when it came back down, making that slapping sound.
The cube was bouncing toward me, and I didn’t want to get burnt, so I slashed it with the Soul Bond. But it split into two halves, each of them still bouncing at me. I swiped at each one, which split into even smaller versions of themselves. Figuring that this creature wasn’t going to die easily, I started to run away from it as it was a slow mover.
I stopped a far distance away, trying to catch my breath. I looked up and noticed a huge clump of glowing yellow stone, which gave off a strong light. I climbed a hill of the pink-red stone as I wanted to collect some as a light source. When I mined it, it fell into large piles of dust, which was a good thing since this could never fit into my backpack in its true form.
Suddenly, above the sound of fire and lava, I begin to hear someone crying. I wasn’t sure who it was; it didn’t sound like Amnesha’s voice, or anyone else’s for that matter. It started sobbing, and at one point even purred like a cat. It was strange, all the things that have happened in the last ten minutes. But the voice sounded like it was pained by something bad.
Before I knew it, a piercing scream penetrates my ears, and out of nowhere I see a small explosion right next to me as I fly off the hill. I wasn’t in a lot of pain thanks to my armor, but I was stunned by what just happened. Actually… what just happened?
I ran back around the hill with the Soul Bond drawn, looking for what just attacked me. Suddenly, in the distance, I see a gigantic white jellyfish-like creature that was perhaps four times my size. It was drifting through the air aimlessly like a ghost. Its face was covered in tears and its eyes were closed. It almost looked angelic to me. But it was far from it. The jellyfish monster opened its eyes, which were maroon with anger, and it screamed at me again, opened its mouth, and spat a huge fireball in my direction. I dodged, and the fireball exploded on contact with the ground, setting everything around it ablaze.
Finding it impossible to face this new creature, I began sprinting as fast as I could away from it. I came to a halt as I almost ran over the edge a cliff. Below it was an enormous lake of lava. In panic, I changed direction and just barely missed being blown up by a fireball.
As I kept running, I turned back to see the jellyfish a bit further from me, However, I wasn’t watching where I was going, and I rammed directly into a Zombie Pigman. He fell down to the ground and made the sound of a shrieking pig. He pointed his sword at me and yelled “Hostile! Engage the human!”
Now I’m really in for it.
From several directions, squadrons of Zombie Pigmen were charging after me like there was no tomorrow. All of them were yelling and squeaking like pigs, with every last sword pointing upward. So now I had an angry mob after me.
I kept running as fast as I could handle, which wasn’t fast enough. Apparently, all of the Pigmen in this place knew that I was hostile, and even the ones far in front of me tried to charge at me. I had no choice; I sliced my Soul Bond through them, clearing a path in the ever-growing rush of Pigmen.
I ran down a hill, and at the bottom was an unusual gray sand that had an odd texture. As I tried to run over it, it suddenly slowed me down because of its composition. I began hopping like a mad rabbit to the end of the field of sand, desperate to get away from the army of Pigmen and the jellyfish creature. Speaking of which, it was perfect timing; another jellyfish decided to join the chase in pursuit of this outsider.
Behind me, the pandemonium of Pigmen and the screaming of those jellyfish were driving me into a wild panic. I lunged my way over a huge gap in the ground as we were starting to enter the land bridge above the lake of lava. In a burst of superhuman speed, I whipped out my pickaxe and dug out the rest of the gap as fast as I could.
The Zombie Pigmen stopped at the gap. Then, one by one, they all jumped into the lava, laughing, and they began to swim through the lava to the other side of the land bridge. I yelled in horror at their immunity, and began running again.
The lava would slow them down, but not for long. I entered a wide opening into another huge cavern. There was another hill here, and I thought it would be my last. I was running out of energy. I didn’t think I had the strength to continue, but I still climbed that hill. My armor was starting to overheat.
It actually was the last hill. Over that hill, my eyes were affixed on what was before me. At the top of this hill was a huge castle, tall and wide, made out of dark purple bricks. There was lava pouring down the sides of some of it.
This was it. This had to be Amnesha’s castle.
I walked in through the large open entrance. The place was a little dark, as the windows were merely purple bars made of those purple bricks. I placed a torch to light the hall, which was long and separated into several paths. I passed a small farm of sorts that was growing a weird red budding plant. As I got further into the fortress, it was getting unusually quiet. I didn’t hear the Pigmen or the cries of the jellyfish.
At the end of the hall, I caught a glimpse of a yellow fire that flew to the other side, not noticing me from this distance. I didn’t know what it was as I couldn’t see that far.
All of a sudden, despite how hot this place was, I got a chill down my neck. I felt as if I were being watched.
I went on through the castle, but there was no sign of Amnesha, or anyone else. I looked at my hands, and noticed they were trembling. My skin was starting to turn red. I took off my backpack and reached for the food inside it. I ate some. But I was hot, not hungry. I felt stupid for not bringing a closed container of water with me. I was no longer sweating, as my body had used up its reserve of water.
I couldn’t bear the heat anymore. I lay down on the hot bricks and passed out.
When I awoken, my armor was gone. I was suddenly alarmed and searched for my backpack, which was also missing. And I wasn’t in the same room as I was last time. I was in what looked to be a jail cell. I stood up. But at the very second I did, I met eye-to-eye with a terrifying man with dead, blank white eyes. He was staring at me from the other side of the bars. I was frozen with fear. I couldn’t move. His glare was arresting. He was wearing a blue shirt and pants, with a golden crown upon short brown hair. And still, blank eyes that stared deeper into my soul than an Enderman could ever do.
After a few minutes of dead silence, I had the nerve to ask “Who… are you?”
Immediately, he replied. “I am Lord Herobrine, ruler of the Nether.” His voice sounded demonic and robotic at the same time. “You have trespassed into my territory.”
I was beginning to tremble. “N-Nether?”
I had not misheard what the Zombie Pigman said. I should have listened to my guts. I angered a whole colony of Pigmen, and I was attacked by fire breathing jellyfish. I had collapsed of a heat exhaustion, and thrown into a jail by the ruler of this place. The Nether.
And that wasn’t the End of it.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/24/2012
Posts:
69
Member Details
You'll find out. Soon enough.
Part 9:
“The Nether?” I repeated. “This isn’t the End?”
“Of course this is the Nether, stupid human,” said the man called Herobrine.
I tried my best to stay calm. “But there were purple snowflakes flowing around the portal.”
“Do not try to hide your fear, human,” said Herobrine boldly. “I can sense fear. It feeds my energy.”
Despite how much I tried to hide it, it was true. His eyes didn’t have a single thing but blankness. They wanted to suck me into another universe. And I was frightened.
“I need to go to the End,” I pleaded. “Could you please let me out?”
“Humph!” Herobrine laughed suddenly. “I knew the Pigman told you specifically not to enter this place. Too bad for you, human. You are going to die in here. You are a lost cause.”
I thought about this. And I thought about accepting my fate. I had wandered into Herobrine’s castle without permission, and I didn’t listen to my gut instinct. Overconfidence kills.
It seemed like I failed Rhino and the villagers. Rhino may never see me again. And the villagers trusted me with their one treasure. Even the chief died knowing I could protect his village for him. And from what I see here, this was it. I failed all of them.
A lost cause.
I wanted to cry, but again, my body didn’t have sufficient water to produce any tears. I couldn’t end it this way. There had to be a way out, while I’m still conscious and have a fighting chance.
“Listen, sir,” I began before being cut off by him immediately.
“Do not call me sir. You shall refer to me as Lord Herobrine.”
“I’m sorry… Lord Herobrine. I want to make it up to you. I’ll do anything for my freedom,” I pleaded again.
Herobrine scoffed. “Hm. I would rather watch you die slowly. But if you really do feel up to a task…”
“Yes!” I stated. “Anything!”
“Actually, make it two. First, we are on a shortage of gold because the Nether ran out of resources many years ago. Give me all of your gold ingots,” said Herobrine.
“Okay, I’ll give you my gold. They’re in my backpack if you still have it.”
“Excellent. Because I stole them from you while you were unconscious.”
I was dumbfounded. “Well then, what’s the second task?”
“I request that you undo the damage you humans have done to my kingdom. Behind the castle are the remains of our lava ocean. It is three miles long. Long ago, a foolish human like yourself poured pure water over it, and eventually it became stone. If you can find a way to replenish the lava, freedom will be yours. And my creatures will no longer harm you. Plus some other miscellaneous gifts, since the ocean of lava is one of my greatest values in the Nether. Do you think you could handle it?”
Not even I expected something so impossible. An ocean of lava, three miles long… How could that be accomplished?
“I will do what I can,” I said. “But I need my gear to help me.”
“Do not let me down, human. And do not underestimate me either. If you dare try to leave, I will catch you. But for now, to allow you to work on this project, I will tell my creatures to not hurt you.” He paused for a moment, then said “That Ghast gave you quite a scare, did it not?”
“The Ghast? As in that jellyfish?” I asked with recognition.
Herobrine nodded. “If you are going to fix my ocean, think strategically. That is all I can say.” He opened the purple gates. “Now go. The room with the humans’ belongings is that way, and the exit is right after it.”
Slowly walking through the open gate, I said “Thank you” and walked off into the storage room.
I could tell this room wasn’t opened for a long time, as it was dusty and humid inside. There were four chests in this room, which must have held the items that previous humans had before dying here. The first chest contained very old items, such as worn-out stone tools and worn-out leather armor. Leather was so weak it wouldn’t be considered armor anyway. The second chest held more tools, and a bowl with rotten food.
The third chest must have been the person who solidified the lava ocean. His chest contained buckets of water, glass bottles holding a strange orange potion in each, and… what’s that? Is that… diamond armor?
I held the blue metallic-looking plates of armor. It was a full set; the helmet, chest plate, leggings and boots. Herobrine said I could use what’s in these chests, right? I believe so. So I put on the diamond armor, feeling much more protected than my iron armor since it was slightly damaged. I also took the bottles with the orange liquid, thinking they would be handy at some point. And I drank some of the water from one of the buckets, despite how old and possibly dirty it must be.
Finally, I opened the chest with my items, the fullest chest of the bunch. I took out my backpack which had most of my items, the Ender Pearl, and the flint and steel, leaving only the iron armor. I left the room and headed down the stairs to the back exit.
From the outside, the fortress was marvelous, seeing hundreds of thousands of Nether bricks all at once. But this wasn’t the time for sightseeing; I had a three-mile round trip ahead of me. And yet again, I had to work with what I had.
I was going to be here for a while, and I couldn’t lug all my stuff around the whole ocean. I mined some of the Nether rocks, using them to build a small open shed to keep my items in. There were many wells of lava nearby, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to refill the ocean by using rapid refills of buckets. The stone stretched as far as I could see, so I had to get to work immediately.
I set up a new table from my wooden planks and began crafting buckets with my iron. I made three. There was a chance that I could get severely burned trying to scoop lava out with a bucket to pour it into the dried ocean, but I had to take risks. Standing near the bubbling lava, I slowly and carefully dipped the bucket in by the handle, filling it with lava. I carefully walked to the shore of the dried ocean and threw the lava into it. I watched how far it would go. I was not impressed.
At this rate, I may never get out of here.
There had to be another way. I thought for some time, and then I sparked an idea. I went to one of the lava wells and began mining a path through the Nether rock, trying to get it to flow into the ocean. The plan worked, and it went much further than the bucketful. But I still had a long way to go.
Nether rock was easy to mine. I spent the next few hours or so connecting all of the lava rivers, ponds, wells, and lakes to the ocean. It filled up a great deal and I was starting to get impressed with my work. I probably filled up half of the ocean.
There weren’t many more bodies of lava that I could use, so I was running out of options eventually. I thought through what I had again.
That’s when I remembered the recipe book. Perhaps something could help me if I knew how to build it. I returned to my campsite and took the book from the backpack. I flipped across the tools section as I didn’t need any tools, and to the Redstone section, as I could probably find something neat to build. And I haven’t built anything with redstone dust yet.
I looked up and instantly caught the glare of Herobrine’s eyes, who was watching me from atop his castle. I had to find a good redstone contraption, and fast. I studied the items on each page, making a mental note to create redstone torches to power the contraptions. Pistons wouldn’t do; they only push things with a powered arm. If anything, they would only block the lava flow. Redstone dust was a major ingredient in certain kinds of powered railways, but this would in no way help me. I skipped the compasses and clocks since they wouldn’t help either, or even work in this new dimension.
One of the last redstone-powered items was the Dispenser. It seemed simple to craft. I needed a large square of hollowed stone, redstone dust at the base, and a… a bow on the inside.
A bow? How would I find a bow down here? I didn’t bring one with me. I could make one, as I had the sticks. But I needed a string for it, which I didn’t bring.
I noticed a large magma cube bouncing its way into the ocean to take an early lava bath. Before it jumped into the lava, a piece of itself flew out and landed on my foot. I thought it would burn me, but it cooled rather quickly. It was like some kind of greenish-orange magma cream. I picked it up, trying to mold it into a thin piece of makeshift string. It worked, and good timing too; the cream began to harden slightly. Quickly, I tied the cream around the sticks for the bow. Ironically, it worked very nicely. I didn’t even need string.
I followed the recipe, making the hollowed box of stone with two holes in it, one for the hatch where you place items in, and the other for the launcher, where the inserted item is apparently “dispensed.” I wanted to see if inserting a bucket of lava would make a natural-looking lava flow, since I read that items such as arrows are dispensed fast, and others are dispensed more slowly. After that, I inserted the bow and hooked up the redstone dust to it and inside the cube. The redstone, with its energy effect, will make the bow’s string shake, releasing whatever it was holding.
When I was done building it, I went ahead and made a redstone torch by lighting the stick with redstone instead of coal. This would be the power source for the dispenser.
I was beginning to feel affected by the heat, despite how much my diamond armor was able to resist it. I held one of the two glass bottles of orange liquid, not sure what it would do. But if the guy who owned these really did pour water over the whole ocean, he must have been here for a long time. Maybe these potions helped him? I opened one of the bottles and drank it at my own risk. The taste was off, but suddenly I was getting a cooling feeling like I had been doused in water. This was probably a potion of fire resistance, because the heat was just not affecting me anymore. I didn’t know how long it would last, though.
Suddenly, I heard sobbing again. It was that jellyfish monster… the Ghast. It drifted over to the shore of the ocean, and stopped next to a hill of Nether stone. Its eyes were still closed, but it apparently knew I was here. It was facing me, so I figured it wanted me to approach it or something. I climbed the hill, wondering what it wanted. The top of its head was at level with the hill. Did it want me to sit on top of its head?
I took my chances, and with my dispenser, bucket, and redstone torch in my hands, I walked onto the top of its massive head, asking myself what the heck I was doing, and I sat down on it. The Ghast could definitely hold my weight, but its motives were beyond me. It began floating into the air and started drifting across the ocean. I was afraid that I would fall down.
The Ghast purred like a cat again. I didn’t know how to speak Ghast, so I simply nodded, again wondering where it was taking me. I was sitting there on top of its head for a very long time, perhaps an hour or more, while it lazily drifted to the other side of the ocean.
There was not as much lava here due to the insufficient number of lava wells. However, there was a cliff standing tall at the very end of the ocean. From what I saw in the impressions on the cliff, lava had once flown here. This was a good place to put the dispenser.
When the Ghast reached the cliff, it stopped so I could get off at the top of the cliff. I placed the dispenser at the front of the cliff, above a large ramp that went downhill and into the ocean. Carefully, and after filling it with lava, I placed the bucket inside the dispenser and tilted it slightly so that it wouldn’t spill early.
At that moment, I heard a metallic breathing sound, like a demonic robot voice similar to Herobrine’s. I turned around and I saw the yellow fire creature that I barely caught a glimpse of earlier. It had a yellow and brown body, smoke around its head, and six rods were floating and rotating around it. As if this creature was somehow a fire spirit. The spirit observed as I got the dispenser set up. Then, I placed the redstone torch on the side of the dispenser, which gave it a sudden red glow. Then, the dispenser made a clicking sound as I saw a large flow of lava suddenly come out from the dispenser. I smiled at my genius plan, even though there wasn’t that much lava in the dispenser.
The fire spirit beside me suddenly caught itself on fire and blew three fireballs into the dispenser. I wanted to ask what it was doing, but I saw what it did. It gave the dispenser a boost, and there was even more lava pumping through at a faster rate.
I looked over the cliff, amazed by what I saw. The hill beneath me made the lava spread out, giving a much bigger effect and further filling up the ocean. I had made the biggest lava-fall ever.
Before I could think of anything else, I saw a group of Zombie Pigmen walking in a single-file line to the ocean. Each of them was holding a block of that gray-brown sand. As I listened, one of them said “At last we have a good use for this Soul Sand.”
“Yep, since we found out it melts and adds to the lava real easily,” replied another.
“Wow, look at this new ocean. I guess humans aren’t that bad.”
“Alright! Teamwork, fellas!” one of them shouted as they each began to throw some of the Soul Sand into the lava, expanding it even more.
I was genuinely amazed by how much we got done, and the lava ocean was becoming completely full.
Out of nowhere, Herobrine said “Well well, human. It seems you have redeemed yourself. Well done.”
I looked behind me, directly into Herobrine’s eyes. “I didn’t think I could do it, but I did. Am I done here?”
Herobrine was baffled at the finished ocean. He said “It took you an awfully short amount of time… how did you do it, human?”
I turned and looked at the Ghast who brought me over here. Then I looked at the spirit who fueled my dispenser. I looked down at the line of Pigmen staring up at me, and, last but not least, the magma cube, bathing in the lava, who gave me the magma cream.
I looked into Herobrine’s eyes again, without any fear, and shouted “Teamwork, fellas!”
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
7/24/2012
Posts:
69
Member Details
Well, they want their bath. I would help too if a swimming pool was dried out. xD
Part 10:
“Words cannot express my gratitude, human,” said Herobrine. “But perhaps rewards can.”
“Lord Herobrine, you’ve given me my freedom. Isn’t that enough?” I asked. We were standing at a high point in his castle overlooking the new lava ocean.
“Listen, human,” he said. “When that foolish one dried out my lava ocean years ago, it was painful on us. This was the Nether hotspot for all of the creatures. Every day, I would enjoy standing here watching the view of the ocean. But after it was solidified, it would bother me, not seeing my most prized possession. This is why you deserve rewards for your backbreaking efforts.”
I was relieved to finally have my freedom alone. But additional rewards? There had to be some awesome things that only a ruler would have.
“Besides your freedom, I will give you my creatures’ respect as said earlier. Plus, I will bestow upon you the ability to brew potions, such as the one you have there,” he said, pointing to the empty and full bottles of orange liquid.
“How do I make potions?” I asked.
“You must use a Brewing Stand,” said Herobrine. “It is made of cobblestone and a Blaze rod for magic purposes. If you’ve seen, the Blazes are the spirits that guard my castle.”
I nodded, listening to him closely.
“A brewing stand can’t quite fit into that bag, can it? Do not worry, I already have it all set up at your house. I even included the ingredients for brewing potions.”
“What?” I asked.
“Ha, I’m a ruler of a dimension, remember? I can control almost anything. Almost…” said Herobrine, looking lost in thought.
“I see. Nice job, Lord Herobrine,” I replied.
“Moving on, I will grant you one of my greatest weapons to aid you on your quest. The Homing Bow,” he said, putting emphasis on the Homing Bow.
I was confused. “What kind of bow is that?”
Without having to go look for it, Herobrine made the Homing Bow appear out of thin air in his hands. “This is crafted of only the finest of diamonds and of a thin silver string. This is the only one in existence.” The Homing Bow was the most beautiful bow I’ve ever seen. Its astonishing glow, crystal surface, and silver string gave it a royal appearance. Only someone who was worthy could ever even dream of holding this weapon.
“It looks like this won’t ever break. How powerful is it?” I asked.
“Do you see that clump of gravel in the distance?” Herobrine asked. I looked far out onto a cliff above the ocean, seeing a line of thick-looking gravel jutting out of it. I nodded. Herobrine gave me one arrow, and said “Concentrate your mind onto the gravel and the Homing Bow will know that that is what you target. But aim away from it.”
I didn’t fully understand, but I put the arrow into the string and pulled it back. I concentrated on the gravel, but aimed away from it as Herobrine instructed. I released the arrow and watched it fly off a certain distance. Suddenly, it changed course, struck the gravel in the heart of the line, and the entire line fell into the lava and burned.
I was amazed, and it was then no wonder why there was only one of this bow. It must have truly taken the finest materials to have built a weapon so powerful that it connects to the holder’s mind.
“Of course, with a unique bow comes unique arrows,” Herobrine stated. “While the Homing Bow can handle any type of arrow, the bow has its own set of special arrows, made with a diamond tip. These, my friend, are Lightning Arrows.”
“Lightning? As in, real lightning?” I asked in excitement.
“Absolutely. Not only am I the master of fire, but also the master of lightning. There are only eleven lightning arrows to the Homing Bow, and any new ones that are crafted will not be as powerful as these pure ones.”
“Wow,” I said. “This is amazing. Thank you, Lord Herobrine.”
Herobrine slightly raised his hand, as if to pause me. “One last thing,” he said. Then he raised his arms and a dark red glow swirled out of him and into my backpack, where the Soul Bond was.
I couldn’t believe what Herobrine said next. “I have added my power to your blade. When you attack, you will now unleash the Fire Aspect.”
“Whoa, you can’t be serious,” I replied.
“I am serious,” Herobrine said. “Also, did you know, if a pig is struck by lightning, it mutates into a Pigman? That is why there are so many here. Many years in the past, I was once the ruler of the Overworld. Using my lightning spells, I turned many pigs into Pigmen as my royal guards. I brought thunderstorms wherever I went, with my great supply of lightning arrows, and my weapon was the Homing Bow. I loved gold weapons and items, so I wore this golden crown and gave all of my Pigmen golden swords as their mark of royalty.
“But one day, I traveled to the Nether, and it was a remarkable place. I used the Netherrack and Glowstone to mark where I have been in the Overworld. The ruler of the End, however, disagreed with mixing otherworldly materials with the Overworld. I heeded this, and decided to make the Nether my home. However, when that fool solidified my ocean, I found his village and burnt it to the ground.”
Now it was starting to make sense. Herobrine was the one who burned the village I found below the Butte.
“However, at the thought of losing my beautiful ocean, I was driven into an uncontrollable madness, and struck endless bolts of lightning around that village, shriveling it all into a blank desert. But this further angered the ruler of the End,” he continued. “She told me that my actions were tearing the land apart. I was banished to the Nether, I could no longer make any more lightning arrows, and I was placed a curse where I cannot enter the Overworld, or I would die.”
I was surprised at his story. So it wasn’t Amnesha who destroyed the village after all. And that explains where Herobrine got his fire powers.
“My magic still roams the Overworld, and occasionally lightning might strike a pig, but this is rare. I have learned to control my magic over time, and that is how I was able to put together the brewing stand in the corner of your living room.”
“That’s a remarkable story, Lord Herobrine,” I said. “Anyway, I’m going to have some trouble getting back home… I think I got lost on the way here.”
“I can send you back through magic,” said Herobrine. “Remember, you are welcome here any time.”
And with that, I felt myself spinning again, and my vision was clouded with purple as I began warping back to the Overworld.
Then my vision was clear. I was standing behind the Nether portal that I built, and I suddenly notice Rhino sprinting at me from a short distance. I held my arms out and he jumped at me with enough force to knock me on my back. He was licking my face and shaking happily. Then he got up and started sniffing my diamond armor, his tail whipping side to side. I stroked the top of his head and stood up, saying “Hey, Rhino! I’m back!”
I went into my house and set my backpack down on the floor. I turned around and saw the new addition beside the furnace room. It was a nice corner-setup of the brewing stand, set on top of a block of Nether brick. Beside it, and at the very corner of the living room, was a large metal cauldron filled with water. Finally, next to the cauldron and at the side of my doorway was a small chest. I opened the chest, seeing a neatly-organized array of glass bottles, those red Nether plants I found at the fortress, redstone dust, Glowstone dust, and what appeared to be a large drop of water.
On my wall was a sheet of paper, telling me how to make potions, and the recipes for making them. I learned that you must fill up a glass bottle with water from a cauldron, then you must set it on the brewing stand itself and insert a Nether Wart, which are those red plants. This will create a basic potion with no effects, but it is that base for making many additional potions. I could then put in redstone dust for a potion of fire resistance, or a Ghast tear for a potion of regeneration, and such. There are many combinations of potions, such as turning them into splash potions, which, when thrown on the ground, have an area of effect.
It occurred to me that I had to go see the village and let them know of my return. Believe it or not, it wasn’t that special of a visit. I just walked to the village, then I told them that I was back. They were happy for my return, and asked many questions about the realm I visited. I told them all about my trip, which surprised them greatly and further increased their respect for me.
A few of them were a little too surprised to believe it. So I held up my Soul Bond and they could see Herobrine’s reflection in it. I even proved it to them by hitting a nearby spider, which caught on fire and burned to death. They started talking about how deserving I am to be the new chief of the village. I bid them a good night and returned home.
But before I walked into the house, I noticed a bright glow above my door, and it wasn’t just the torches. There was a huge ‘E’ on the forehead of my house, made out of that Glowstone. I suppose Herobrine put that there, but for what reason I don’t know.
Rhino’s bowl was almost out of meat. The villagers gave me some more earlier, realizing that I’m keeping Rhino as a pet. I tossed in some more meat, refilling the bowl. Then I sat down on my bed, thinking of going to sleep. But out of nowhere, I heard Herobrine’s voice.
“Listen, human. I am down here.”
I looked down and saw his reflection in the Soul Bond. Then he said “Before you go to bed, I added a few more pages to your recipe book when you were not looking.” Then his reflection disappeared.
I reached for the recipe book and flipped to the back pages. It showed things like how to compress Glowstone dust into a full piece of Glowstone, and how to make a brewing stand. There was also a guide on turning Blaze rods into Blaze powder. But on the very last page, there was a guide to making something called “Eye of Ender.” I was confused, and I looked at the recipe. It was as simple as covering an Ender Pearl in a large sprinkle of Blaze powder. The two items will magically fuse together and create the Eye of Ender.
But there was an additional paragraph on the bottom of the page. It read “Many Eyes of Ender are required to open up the End portal, which can only be found in a Stronghold. Up to twelve may be needed, but sometimes not as much. You must place the Eyes into the End portal frames deep inside the Stronghold. Once they are all in place, the space inside the frames will open up a black portal, where you will be able to access the End. However, getting into a Stronghold will be extremely difficult. Once you have an Eye of Ender, throw it into the air and it will float in the direction of a Stronghold. Do not overuse it, though; it can shatter from overuse, unlike the Ender Pearl.”
So it all made sense; I have to defeat up to twelve Endermen, which would be an arduous task, and collect as many Ender Pearls as possible. Then Herobrine will give me the Blaze powder I need to create an Eye of Ender.
I was getting thirsty and decided to drink the rest of the milk from the cooler. I opened it and drank the rest of the milk. However, as soon as I reached in to put the bucket back, I noticed a large orange clump of Blaze powder sitting where the bucket was. I took it out, replaced the bucket, and set the powder in the Epic Loots chest. I was getting increasingly happy at refilling the lava ocean, because it was certainly worth it. Now I wouldn’t have to keep going back into the Nether and fight so many wicked monsters just to get the items I needed. I barely lasted a few hours in there when I first arrived.
I liked the idea of being able to enter the End only if you had Eyes of Ender, because those who have Eyes of Ender have proven themselves more than worthy of going to the End. The Eyes draw power from two different aspects of the dimensions; the Overworld and the Nether. Plus, you need to be strong to slay an Enderman, then you have to have endurance to enter the Nether, survive the heat, defeat a Blaze, take the rod and come back. On top of that, you need to make a Nether portal, which is a task in itself. In conclusion, possessing even one Eye of Ender takes a great deal of work.
That’s when I realized; I did have the qualifications to have an Eye of Ender. I am worthy of it. But I wanted to keep my original Ender Pearl, as having the ability to teleport would come in great handy when I needed it most. Still though, I’m amazed by how far I’ve come. When I think about it, the last task I have to overcome would be hunting down the Endermen. But it would be made much simpler now that I have the one and only Homing Bow. Endermen would teleport away if I tried to shoot an arrow, but if I fired an arrow that would continue to pursue the Enderman, it would eventually be hit.
Again, this would be my last task before setting out to find the Stronghold. Then, one way or another, it would all be over. I could either earn my respect and be set free from this place, or get killed by Amnesha’s dark magic. Whichever path it may be, it won’t be that long before I reach it. Because I’ve gained a powerful ally.
The King of the Nether, Lord Herobrine himself.
Part 1:
It was only a few days after the expedition began when it happened.
I was sent on a mission with a team of brave explorers. There were twenty of us total. Our purpose for the mission was to find an uncharted land for the ever-growing population of the world. Our society was overpopulated, polluted, and crowded at every corner. Smog was taking over. Everyone’s blood pressure ran at an all-time high. Finally, the governments of the countries each sent a skilled explorer to team up for an expedition to find a new place for people to live.
We were sent to the beginning of a previously unknown jungle by helicopter. Our job was to chart all the different organisms, and measure an estimate on the amount of land there was on it. After we were left alone at the edge of the jungle, we trekked as deep as we could until night time, then we set up camp. The next morning, we packed up and continued, only walking during the day.
The jungle was hot. At some points, steamier than a foggy shower. Every hour the crickets would chirp. We had to stop at certain points to keep track of the plants and animal species living inside the rainforest. We had to hike through mountainous regions in the forest; at the bottom of the valleys was a pond or two, followed by a river heading downhill.
It felt like a long time, but although it had been a couple of days, we knew we had gone far into the jungle. It was like another world, because we had not experienced such hilly rainforests in our years of exploring. Plus, there had been a number of plants that not even the scientists of the group were able to identify.
One morning, about a week and a half after our start, I stood outside my tent, suddenly noticing a chill in the air. But immediately after, the hot moist air returned. Was it some kind of forewarn?
There was a light fog out in the distance all around the temporary camp. My new friend Zane, who I met at the start of the trip, walked up to me as the grass crinkled under his heavy boots. “Only four days to go,” he said. “Then the helicopters are gonna track us and our progress.”
“Imagine that,” I replied. “We’ll be so famous for helping mankind. I almost feel bad we’ll be invading this peaceful place, though.”
“Don’t worry, man,” said Zane. “We’re risking our lives out here in uncharted territory. If we can convince the government, they just might try to cause as little deforestation as possible.”
I nodded. Before I could say something else, we heard a rustle in the dense trees. As we looked in the direction the sound came from, another crewmate stepped out of the brush. It was Amnesha. She was one of the explorers from the new eighth continent, Oceania. To be more specific, the Marshall Islands. It is the least populated continent as it is mainly composed of islands. But it is still overpopulated for a few measly islands.
What caught our eye was that she was holding a large cat. It looked out of the ordinary. “Whoa,” I said. “That’s a spotted leopard, isn’t it? I thought they were extinct!” Zane didn’t know what to say.
Amnesha rolled her eyes. “That’s not a leopard,” she said, stroking the cat’s fur. “Its eyes are wider. Its tail is curved differently.”
“How can you be sure?” Zane asked. “What if they evolved in this secluded forest? Untouched by modern day?”
Amnesha whispered something in the cat’s ear, and set it down as she watched it scurry off into the bushes. She evened out her blond hair, and said “You’ll never know. You could be right. But so could I.” She proceeded to dismantle her tent as the day had begun and we needed to keep moving. Now that I thought about it, we needed to pack up as well.
In the next hour, our humidity detectors ran extremely high. Although barely any sun reached the floor and it was foggy, our clothes were soaked from humidity alone.
“They say that the government chose each person according to their attributes. What’s yours, Zane?” I asked some time later.
“Endurance,” said Zane. “I could run a mile and just shrug it off. You?”
“Me? Well, I never give up. When I get the motivation for something, I don’t stop until I’m dead.”
“Vladimir of Russia is quite witty, and he’s an expert with tools. He’s one of the scientists for a reason.”
I looked over my shoulder and noticed Amnesha had barely even broken a sweat. Zane knew what I was wondering, so I guessed “environmental resistance?” He smirked and nodded.
It was nightfall before we knew it. The fog wasn’t helping in the least bit, and not even our strongest flashlights broke the fog by any significant amount. Although it was night and the moisture in the air was dense, I suddenly got the chill down my spine. Only this time it was stronger. I looked over and asked “Zane, do you feel cold?”
Zane made a face and said “No… why?”
As I looked across him, I suddenly see a pair of piercing, unblinking eyes. My heart stopped. I will never forget that image, an image of purple eyes that shimmered in the darkness. I gasped and pointed to the direction I saw the pair of eyes. Zane pointed his flashlight in a quick reflex. But suddenly, it was gone. It had just disappeared. “What is it?” Zane asked.
“I saw something,” I said, shuttering.
It was barely a second later that a black haze swiftly knocked Zane off his feet. Immediately, I pull out my pistol and fire at it, but as soon as I did, the thing vanished. At that moment, I felt myself being thrown into a tree. Everyone else had a look of panic as they desperately searched for the thing. Feeling blood on my face, I tried to help Zane up, only to be knocked down again. In that instance, I noticed more… two, three, four dark figures, ambushing our group. They kept disappearing and reappearing, striking each person in the head or the back. Each strike, I heard the sound of a cracking bone. That’s when I felt the swollen bump on my head. My vision began to blacken. The last thing I heard was the echo of my crew’s screams.
The last thing I saw?
Those eyes.
...
How was that? Let me know what you think.
I'm inactive, hoping to make a return one day.
Part 2:
The birds commenced chirping, slowly shaking me to consciousness. I was still on the ground, exhausted. I could barely move, so I just stared at a few blades of grass. That’s when the thought hit me. We were attacked. By what, I didn’t know. Whatever those things were, I didn’t want to run into them again. I forced myself to sit up, and I wiped the dirt and dry blood from my face. I scanned the area, hoping the crew was safe. What I saw shocked me. There were stains of blood all over the grass, bushes, and tree bark. One tree had a small splatter of blood, and I’m sure it was mine.
I stood up to investigate further. I almost fainted from the sight of a bone that caught my eye. Surely, it belonged to one of us, as there were flies covering a third of it, meaning it was fresh.
I began limping across the tall grass, looking for any signs that the crew was still alive. It was like a hidden path; a blood stain here, a broken bush there. But eventually, it all stopped, leading to nothing. I reached into my pocket, and I realized the attacker made my pistol fly out of my hand when I hit the tree. All of my gear was gone. Just my clothes and my bare hands. How I would ever survive out here was mission impossible.
I’ve seen many old television shows about people being lost in the woods. From what I remember, they had some sort of gear or tools. I had nothing. Angered, I threw my fist into a tree. Suddenly, I hear a plopping sound, and the place I hit the tree at flew to the ground. I stared at the piece of wood. Then I picked it up. This must have been one of the new species of trees we charted earlier, as no tree back home was ever that sensitive.
I tried to bend the piece of wood. Frankly, it was very bendable, so I took the time to carve it into a stack of wooden planks. Somehow, I think making something at least would serve some purpose.
I trekked through the jungle tiredly, but I knew I couldn’t just give up and die. I had to survive until the end of the week, when the helicopters would come to get us. But, a crewmate had a device that showed the helicopters where we were. Wherever it is, I can only hope I see the helicopters in three days.
I continued punching down trees, even hitting them with my planks as my knuckles began to bleed. It wasn’t long before I was exhausted yet again. I sat on a fallen log and I held my massive stack of planks. I dropped some of them. With this amount of bendable wood, who knows what I could make? I noticed several cuts and splinters tearing up my shaking hands, but only now did I feel the sharp pain in them. I couldn’t do this with only my hands, so I put them to work one last time. I put several planks together and constructed a table. Now I had something to rest my materials on.
Above my head was a low-lying tree branch, holding out a red delicious apple. I carefully plucked the apple from the stem, and checked it for any parasites. After staring at its red glow, I bit into it. My mouth was filled with the apple’s taste. I munched on the apple to its core and tossed it aside. Feeling relieved, I began construction once more. I tore up some of the planks evenly and made sticks. Sticks are very important for making the hilt of a tool.
When I heard a rustle in the bushes behind me, I spun around. To my relief, it was only the leopard that Amnesha was holding yesterday. I motioned it to come closer and that I meant no harm, but the leopard only stared at me with its green eyes and scurried away after.
I think the cat was trying to warn me. Perhaps there were other creatures in this forest I hadn’t seen yet, many of which could be dangerous. The thought got me working on another project. I sharpened two of the planks and molded them with a thick stick. I had made myself a wooden sword.
I made the table to be both light and sturdy, making it easy for me to carry. I picked it up in one arm and held my planks and sword in the other.
Suddenly, I felt the ground sink slightly below me, and my shoe filled with water. I looked up and realized that I had just stepped foot into a swamp. Believe it or not, the swamp was much less humid than the jungle. When I walked, my shoes made a squishing sound. As I went to go look around, I noticed a cow trotting around feeding on the marshland grass. It mooed. As much as I hated it, I realized that I had to kill it later for food and hide. I was still hungry after eating the apple, so I eventually brought myself to slay the cow with my sword. I dragged it to another fallen log, sat down, and skinned it. I would have no room in my hands if I had gotten the meat from it. I held the hide to the table and weaved a large backpack with multiple pockets. I used up the entire hide, so the backpack was nearly as big as I was. I stored the planks, sticks and the freshly-cut meat in it. That’s when I realized that I would have to cook the meat to avoid getting sick.
I sat down by the table again, and got out my planks and sticks. I sharpened three planks and attached them to two sticks. I had just made a wooden pickaxe. I walked over to a chunk of stone and began chipping away at it, collecting each block that fell from it. Although this stone was still extremely rough, I could just barely bend it. I held one plank and used it for carving the stone. Then, I set the stone on the table and sharpened them, creating a stone pickaxe. I attempted to create some sort of furnace, placing cobblestone in a box-shape, and adding a few bars to an opening on the front. Yes, that looks like a good stove. But, it would be impossible to make it work unless I supplied power to it.
The shining glow of the sun washed over me as I realized it was sunset. The image of the attackers came to mind again, and immediately I searched for a place where I could spend the night. But the swamp was almost barren. There weren’t many trees and most of the land was simply empty. I couldn’t bring myself to reenter that jungle, not after what had happened. I pulled the sword out from behind the log I sat on and held it close. The sun disappeared behind the horizon almost instantly.
I wandered the swamp for about half an hour, searching for anywhere that I could call a temporary shelter. I stopped as I looked down in front of me. There was a gaping hole in the ground, leading to an underground cave. I wanted to go inside, but it was far too dark.
I almost considered making a house out of the wooden planks, but I realized they wouldn’t make much as I didn’t have a sufficient amount. Plus, a house was far too big to make on the table and my hands were swollen and still bleeding. So I set the table down and created a stone axe to chop down trees more sufficiently. I walked over to a tree and tested out my new axe. It worked quite nicely, getting the pieces of wood down without much effort.
I had just finished crafting the wood into planks when I suddenly heard a groan. It seemed like it was human-like, but something didn’t sound right. It was low-pitched. I looked around, hoping it was a crewmember.
“Brrrrhh.”
That’s when the human walked out from inside the cave. I almost went to greet him in relief, but the instant I saw his face, I was taken aback. His face was green and his eyes were narrow, but he was wearing the outfit one of the crewmembers had worn the day earlier. But he looked extremely sick and diseased, almost as if he had been… zombified. His arms were raised up and pointing at me as he walked.
The human made a gargling sound. I wasn’t sure what to do. At that moment, the human pushed me into the table and attempted to beat me into a pulp. I shoved him away with a yell and reached for my sword. I tightened my fingers around the hilt and swung it at the zombie. I landed a gash in his chest but he didn’t seem to feel pain. He kept walking towards me. I jabbed the sword into his shoulder and wrecked his joints, but he still kept trying to get to me. In a mixture of fear and anger, I kicked him in the stomach and sliced his torso in half. Finally, he stopped moving as both parts of him dropped dead onto the now bloody ground.
Whatever had happened to the crew was a mystery to me. Seeing one of my teammates as a serious real zombie made me wonder if this happened to the others as well. Why it didn’t affect me, I had no idea.
Truth of the matter is, there’s no hope left for the rest of the crew. Not in a place like this.
I’m on my own now.
I'm inactive, hoping to make a return one day.
Part 3:
That night felt long and short at the same time. After killing one of my crewmates who no longer had a mind, I laid my stomach over my table. A minute later, it was daytime, so I must have fallen asleep on the table. I was growing hungry and I was out of energy. I was a complete mess. My hands looked dirty and encrusted in blood, both from me and that zombie. My shoes were soaked by the marsh water. My clothes were drenched in sweat and blood, and my face was still throbbing from coming into contact with that tree. As this point, it didn’t look like I would go far.
With the sun risen, I only have a matter of time before it’s night again, and who knows what other devilish creature could attack me next. I barely fit the furnace into my backpack, and managed to squeeze in my tools, planks and sticks as well. I carried the table in one arm and my sword in the other.
Out in the distance, I see the wide landscape of a desert. To the right of it was a river, streaming between the desert and the rainforest from which I had come. Normally, I wouldn’t walk into a desert in this condition, but I noticed a large hill made of sand sitting in front of the river with the jungle behind it. I thought that it would be a good place to set up a shelter, so I began trudging my way there. As I entered the field of sand in front of the pyramid-shaped hill, I noticed a spring of clean water about ten meters away. Gratefully, I set my bag, table, and sword down by the bank and reached my hand into the water. I always had a sharp eye for clean water, and this was by far the purest I’ve ever seen. I drank a handful, feeling a relieving chill going down my ribs as I drank it. Since I knew I would be staying here for a while, I took off my shirt and bathed in the water. It probably wasn’t a good idea bathing with all the dirt on me, but there was a small hole on the bottom of the pond, where I figured there was an aquifer. I took my chances and kept drinking the water, even though I saw the barely noticeable mixture of blood in the water.
Once I felt refreshed, I sundried and put my shirt back on, when I noticed I would have to wash it soon. I took out my wooden pickaxe to begin digging a large hole in the hill. The sand was easy to remove, making a hole large enough to fit me, but it was nothing close to a shelter. I created a narrow opening about my height and width, and eventually I hit a wall of stone. At that point, I thought of making a room of sorts, like a wide square inside the hill. However, I had only gotten through a small portion of stone when my pickaxe suddenly broke. Discarding the pieces, I went back to my bag and fished my stone pickaxe. Immediately I continued digging. In no time I created a room about five meters in length and width, but the height was barely at my level, so I dug up a little bit to increase the height of the room. It wasn’t pretty, seeing as the interior’s walls were made of stone, dirt, and sandstone. I brought the table into my newly-carved room and set it down. I also brought in the rest of my tools and materials. Noticing that I had a large amount of cobblestone and sand after digging this room, I needed to have more space. I grabbed some wooden planks and built a chest to hold my spare items.
With some daylight left to kill, I ventured out with my sword and pickaxe, and began to look around for anything I could use for resources. I headed back into the swamp and continued walking until I reached the cave I found the previous night. There was a fair amount of sunlight reaching into it, so I stepped inside and began to look around. I knew that there could be something lurking in here like the zombie I fought, but I had to take risks to survive. I eventually reached a part of the cave where the sunlight was dimming, but I looked at the wall to the left of me to find something inside the stone. It looked like black rocks, but I couldn’t be sure. I dug it out, and to my surprise, it was a chunk of coal. There was plenty more inside the wall, and I dug out all of it. I ended up with five pieces of coal. I wondered what I could use it for, and that’s when I remembered the furnace. I could use the coal as a power supply and cook the meat. I caught myself drooling, thinking of a juicy steak in my teeth.
I rushed out of the cave and returned to my little hideout. I pulled the furnace out of my backpack and set it on the floor. I dug a tiny room with a wide shelf to fit it in. I placed the furnace in the tiny opening and jammed it between the makeshift shelf and the low ceiling I dug the room out of. I decided this new expansion would be the furnace room.
I stuffed the two chunks of meat I could salvage from the cow into the furnace, and at the bottom of it, I placed a piece of coal. I struck the coal piece into a specific part of the furnace, and instantly it fired up. I quickly dropped the coal into the furnace and jerked my hand back to avoid getting burned. I could barely wait, but in time the fire inside the stove stopped burning and the coal was nothing but dust. I carefully removed the chunks of meat, and my eyes widened. I had successfully cooked the meat.
Licking my lips, I took a bite out of one, tasting a flavorful explosion. I had always loved steak, but I couldn’t imagine making it to save my life. Now, I got to work on setting my axe, planks, sand, and stone into the chest I constructed.
I looked out the opening and noticed the sun was going down. I was almost struck by panic as both the zombie and the dark figures emerged from my head. I took out all of my remaining planks and got to work on making a door out of them on the table. After I cut a few holes in them for a window, I used the spare parts for making the hinges. When I was done, I forced the hinges into the side of the opening at the entrance. Now I felt much safer.
But something was missing. As it was getting darker, I realized it would be impossible to see in here. I tried to think of a solution to this problem. I needed to work with what I had… Well, I could use the coal to fire up the furnace, but that would be wasteful. I looked at the sticks lying on the floor. I had five of them. Suddenly, the light bulb in my head flickered as it sparked an idea. I grabbed four of the sticks, and broke them into smaller sections. Then I grazed a piece of coal over the top of each stick, suddenly sparking a small flame on it. Smiling at my brilliant idea, I placed the torches by the wall opposite the furnace room. I burnt out all but one so I could save the rest for later. One torch gave off enough light to allow me to see the whole room.
Now, I have never felt more grateful to be safe. I could finally relax. I happily lied down on the rocky floor and fell asleep. Perhaps I actually will make it out alive.
I'm inactive, hoping to make a return one day.
Part 4:
Swoop.
It sounded like air. But it was more of a quick, rushing air played backwards. I woke up instantly, startled by the sound in the midst of the silence within my new shelter.
I looked around but nothing was there. A second later, I looked up as something tiny slowly drifted down through the air, landing upon my nose. I pinched it with my thumb and index finger, examining it closely. It resembled the shape and pattern of a snowflake. However, it was purple. How could a purple snowflake exist? What is this?
The snowflake seemed otherworldly. It crumbled to dust a minute later. But I wasn’t too surprised. Even the unthinkable has happened already. Zombies. Sudden attackers. Being the last unlucky fellow left in the team. And now, purple snowflakes? Well, at this point it would be wise to expect the unexpected.
The sun was beaming through the holes in the door. I looked out the door, at the field and swamp in the distance, and I said to myself “Round Three.”
Out of nowhere, as I took a step, I was suddenly inflicted with a stab of sore pain. I stood there, afraid to move again. Perhaps I overworked myself yesterday and my muscles couldn’t go on. But I couldn’t take this day to rest; maybe another day. I had to look for food, and I was running low on materials.
With each aching step, I grabbed my stone axe and headed out to the swamp to cut down more trees. With some of my new planks, I crafted a little salad bowl to hold my water in. After, I returned to my spring and filled my bowl to the rim. I drank half of the water in it, and stored it back in my shelter for later.
With each joint screaming at me to stop, I sat down at the base of the sand pyramid. It looked like I would pass out. But I noticed by the position of the sun that it was in the afternoon. If I fell asleep now, I would be open to any creatures of the night. Grunting, I managed to stand up. I was about to head inside, when I suddenly hear the bleating of a sheep. I looked around, but I couldn’t see it.
I followed the sound. It turns out the sheep was hiding out by the riverbank behind the hill. There were two of them, each drinking water from the river. Slowly drawing my sword, I cautiously snuck up on them, lunged forward, and slew the sheep.
It took all of my remaining strength to bring the sheep over the hill. When I finally did, I took a large portion of their meat to cook later. I took the wool off of them as I knew it would be helpful to use for sleeping on.
Once inside the shelter, I ate the second piece of steak from yesterday, and placed a chunk of lamb in the furnace, and turned it on. I was almost out of coal, and I don’t think I would be able to cook the rest of the lamb I salvaged. I realized that a meat-only diet wouldn’t be so nutritious after a while, and that I would have to go back into the jungle at some point for more apples. The thought made me shiver.
I decided I really deserved a proper rest. So I went to the table and got my wooden planks. I put some together in a rectangular-box fashion, and then I tightly patted the wool in it, creating a basic bed. When I was done, I heaved the bed into the corner of the room. It was a good thing I stopped there, because suddenly my muscles couldn’t take it anymore. I dropped onto the bed and stayed there. The sun was down, and luckily my torch was still burning.
As soon as I closed my eyes, I hear it.
“Brrrrhh.”
There it is again. It’s a zombie. I didn’t move, listening closely. It sounded like it was outside, searching for me. I started shaking. This was the wrong time to be fighting a zombie. Not in my condition.
I began to hear its footsteps in the sand. They kept getting closer. And suddenly, there it was, staring at me through my door with its swollen eyes. I stopped moving. I stopped breathing. I didn’t even move my eyes or blink. But it was too late. It saw me. It stared me right in the eyes, and all of a sudden it started banging on my door, trying to get it open. I was gripped by terror, because I couldn’t move. I used up all my energy.
That’s when I was struck with familiarity. Not only was the zombie from our crew, but I knew him.
It was Zane.
But I knew I couldn’t open the door; it was no longer the Zane I knew. His good spirit was gone. Even if he did make it through that door, I don’t think I could bring myself to kill him. I was lucky to have made the door as sturdy as it was.
Suddenly, I hear an object fly through the air. Zane stopped hitting the door. I looked at him to see why he stopped. Then I see it; an arrow had pierced through his head. Zane went limp and dropped to the ground with a thud. I was in shock. Who could’ve done that?
Then I see something walk up to Zane beside my door. I wasn’t sure if I could believe what I was seeing, but it was a skeleton. The skeleton was holding a bow in its hands. It reached down and grabbed Zane by the back of the shirt, and dragged him away.
I was baffled. I didn’t know how to react. There’s just too much chaos unfolding before me.
The next morning came rather quickly after the incident. When I managed to stand up, I was surprised that my bones didn’t ache even more than yesterday. I suppose I killed the right sheep for this bed. It was a very soft one indeed.
I decided that I had enough energy to return to the cave and mine for coal. I put the necessary items in my backpack- my pickaxe, my torches, and my cooked lamb- and stored everything else in the chest. I figured it wouldn’t be the best idea to bring my bowl of water as it could spill easily. So to refresh, I drank the rest of the water.
I looked at my sword and noticed how beaten-up it’s gotten. I didn’t want it to break at the wrong time, so I thought ahead and forged a stone sword to last longer. Now that I thought about it, I wouldn’t want my pickaxe to break either, so I made a second one.
Now that I was completely prepared, I stepped out the door and closed it behind me. I cringed at the dents and scratch marks there was on it from last night. There were even a few drops of blood where the arrow had been. I really wished Zane hadn’t been zombified by whatever caused it.
Turning my back to the battered door, I set off for the swamp. I was there in no time, and I stopped at the entrance to the cave. The sun was in the mid-morning position, meaning I had plenty of time to explore the cave. Without another thought, I entered the cave and began looking for coal. I found some rather quickly, in the same place I found some last time.
As I ventured deeper into the cave, it began to get dark. So I lit one of my torches, revealing a much longer path than I expected. I set the torch down by a wall as I mined up some more coal. Next to the patch of coal, I noticed a few shining silver objects buried within the rocks. I mined the strange rocks, but there was still a hefty amount of normal stone covering it. I tapped my finger on the silver object, making an echoing ding. I didn’t know what to think at first, but I figured I must have hit some iron ore. I stored the pieces in my backpack along with the coal.
Suddenly, I hear a faint hiss. There was something in the cave. My eyes shot to the left, and in the darkness beyond my torch’s reach was a large bundle of red eyes. Instinctively, I whipped my sword from the backpack and held it in front of me to warn the monster. The thing crawled into the light and revealed itself; it was a spider, the largest spider I’ve ever seen. It resembled a tarantula, only it was twice as wide as my height. Showing no fear, I stayed my ground. The spider hissed again and jumped at me full force. I blocked its jump and shoved it back, swinging my sword at it. I cut it in the shoulder, which only seemed to make it angrier. It lunged again, but this time I darted my sword through the air, stabbing it in the abdomen while it was in midair. It hissed one more time, then it fell motionless. I shook it off my sword, now stained with spider blood.
I finished mining up the coal and iron ore in the area until my first pickaxe broke. Then I went in deeper and found more coal and iron. There was a large amount of iron in this area, probably enough to last me a week. When my pickaxe showed signs of breaking, I turned around and headed back, bringing my torch with me. I noticed that the spider’s body had decomposed rather quickly, leaving behind a bundle of its web string. I figured it would be a good idea to take it in case I want to make something like a fishing rod for when I go to the swamp again.
I left the cave soon after. To my shock, it was night time. Careful not to take a wrong step, I tiptoed to the field, checking for any monsters. I heard a zombie grumble behind me. Without another thought, I spun around and stabbed it through the heart. When it dropped down, I kept sneaking back to the shelter. I looked around the tree, seeing if the coast was clear. I saw the door about twenty meters away. I was just about to take a step forward when I stop abruptly. There’s something over there. It was tall. As I looked on, the thing turned around.
Oh my gosh.
It’s those eyes.
I’m filled with fear instantly. I had seen what these things can do. And I wasn’t going to be its next victim. This thing was probably three feet taller than me, and seeing it stand still, it had pitch-black skin. Perhaps it was made of shadows themselves. As I studied it more, I see a few little particles surrounding it.
Purple snowflakes.
My pupils shrink. That thing can disappear at will. I start putting the pieces together. A purple snowflake landed on me this morning. That must mean it teleported away when I woke up, which is what made that swooping sound.
Rage suddenly replaces my fear. That thing was watching me while I was sleeping. For what reason, I didn’t know. It was likely waiting for me to return. I patiently waited until it turned its back. When it finally did, I sprinted at it and flung myself into the air with my sword drawn. I successfully hit it in the back as I heard it say “Ooph!” in a strange blurred voice. In that instant, I heard the swooping sound as it teleported away. I turned around quickly as I see the thing staring at me from the edge of the swamp. Suddenly it teleported again, this time right in front of me. Before I had time to react, it shoved me with immense strength into the wall of my shelter. I knew I couldn’t go inside, as it could follow me in there. Again it warped away, this time much farther. I braced my sword as it started running towards me, teleporting side to side while it was running, almost ninja-style. I swung at just the right time, but it teleported again a millisecond before I could connect my attack.
I started to get dizzy trying to keep track of its movements. Just then I was rammed into the wall again, feeling an intense pain in my shoulder blade.
The shadow teleports a few feet away and starts making its way toward me again. That’s when I realized the terrible mistake I just made. All twenty of us were no match for four of these. But one against one? I knew right then and there that I was going to be killed.
“Barold. That’s enough.”
The shadow stopped moving at the sound of those words. I remained sitting against the wall, unable to grasp what I just heard. I knew that voice. The shadow stared at me without blinking.
I hear a strong wind as a flurry of purple snowflakes and black wind suddenly spirals around near the shadow. The snowflakes stop spinning and most of them disappear. There was a person standing in the middle of what used to be the small tornado.
I gasped. It’s Amnesha. And she’s still alive.
But something didn’t look quite right. She seemed to be wearing a silver crown made of purple stone, and she was in a black sinister cloak.
Amnesha stared at me and said “You’re a tough one, aren’t you? To challenge an Enderman head-on? You fool.”
“What?” I asked, trying to ignore my back pain. “That’s what those things are? How are you still alive?”
“Foolish human,” she said. “You and your kind really thought you could just walk into this land and take it as your own? To help your dying species?”
“What are you talking about, Amnesha?” I asked, pretending I didn’t just see her teleport out of thin air.
“This is my territory,” Amnesha began. “And my people claim it. I’m not going to let anyone wander into my land. I foresaw you humans coming to this world many years before, so that’s how I managed to get into your little expedition. I had my Endermen ambush the group while I turn the rest into zombies. You, however… you were immune to that spell. You are something else.”
“Something else?” I asked, confused.
“From what I see, you’re a semipure. One that strives to be the best. You don’t give up easily, as I can see you built up quite an egg nest here.”
“You didn’t have to kill us. We could’ve talked things out.”
“That wouldn’t be necessary. Could you imagine you filthy humans living alongside Endermen in my empire? It would be chaos. Plus, they hate being looked at. All in all, I want to keep this place untouched by filthy hands like yours.” Now, she did have a point. My hands weren’t looking so nice.
Amnesha took a step closer. I knew something wasn’t right. Half her face seemed to be made out of the same skin as those shadow people. On that half, her eye was purple with no pupil; just plain purple that shimmered like the shadow’s eyes. What also alarmed me was that she had one leg and a tentacle, instead of just a pair of legs.
“I’m going to let you live,” she continued, “but only for my amusement. I love to see little humans struggling to survive. I’ll have my eye on you, so don’t try anything funny.” That’s when I noticed her razor-sharp teeth.
She stepped back, and told the shadow “Barold, return to the End at once.”
“Yes, my queen.” The shadow vanished instantly with no other sign of him besides a few snowflakes.
Amnesha turned to me again. “Human, until the day you die, I’ll be watching you. Have fun.” And with that, she giggled quite evilly as she surrounded herself in snowflakes and black wind, and disappeared.
I sat there, unable to comprehend what just happened. Immediately, I got up without another thought and headed inside. I sat my bag on the floor and deposited some coal into the furnace and inserted my chunks of iron ore, trying to melt off the stone around it.
I took a seat on the bed while I waited for the iron to cook. So these shadows… Endermen, if I heard correctly… they’re Amnesha’s people. It’s as if she’s the ruler of a society, in a totally different world. So, all this time she was only setting us up, to backstab us when we least expect it? It didn’t make a lot of sense, but what did was that she just wanted to protect her world from outsiders.
I hear the furnace’s sizzling sound stop, and I knew the iron was done. I peeked inside the furnace with great surprise. I took out the silvery objects, which were now full refined bars of iron ingots. I could make some great stuff with this, I thought. There was still some coal left, so I didn’t bother inserting more. Instead, I cooked the other half of the chunk of lamb while I ate the first. When it was done, I put it into my backpack and went to the table. With three of my new iron ingots, I managed to craft a sharp and efficient iron pickaxe. This won’t be breaking for a long time.
Imagine what other resources I could mine with this. And imagine what I could make of those new materials. In anticipation, I crafted an iron helmet, chest plate, leggings, and boots to prepare me for monsters. Subconsciously, I knew the helicopters were supposed to pick us up today. But I figured Amnesha took the tracking device and either destroyed it, or took it into her world… the End, if I recall.
Well, time to go find this End.
If Amnesha really is the ruler of this world, she’s probably been doing this for centuries. Time after time, killing people who wander into this land or watching them starve. It’s like a giant game. And I’m not going to become another statistic.
I’m not going to fail.
I said clearly, knowing she was probably watching me, “Okay, Amnesha. Game on! If it’s amusement you want, it’s amusement you’ll get!”
....
Thumbs up for plot twists and TobyGames!
I'm inactive, hoping to make a return one day.
I have a prediction for the future! I can't wait to see if it turns out like that or not. ^^
This is overall awesome.
If you'd like, I could think about a name for it.
...I talk too much. Sorry about that. XD
Go ahead and think of a name if you'd like, and talk as much as you want. I can't tell you how much I love feedback. It's like food for my mind.
Part 5:
Never have I been more grateful for sleep. When you’re trapped in the wilderness, you’re attacked by monsters, and your own teammate turns her back on you, you really become exhausted physically and mentally.
I was taking a breather at the spring, drinking water through my bowl. I refilled it several times to keep me energized for longer. Staring into my reflection in the water, I suddenly sprout an idea. I went into my shelter and got out some sticks and the long piece of string I collected from the spider. I held the sticks together and tied the string on both ends, making a makeshift bow. It wasn’t exactly the best thing in the world, and I didn’t even have any arrows. Well, there was no harm in practicing. Just in case something attacks me again, I put on my iron armor, which was both light and strong.
I considered going deeper into the cave now that I could make more torches. But as I looked around, I haven’t explored much of the surrounding environment. To the east, there were more desert hills and a mountain made of what appeared to be sandstone.
I made my way across the dune, avoiding the cacti that were in this area. There was another spring here. I studied the front of the mountain. There were ancient hieroglyphics inscribed in it that I couldn’t read. There was a picture of a face on some parts of the hieroglyphs. It had square black eyes and appeared to be screaming. The face disturbed me in a way. If that was a monster, I’d hate to meet it. But given the circumstances, I would expect to run into that at some point.
Beside the hieroglyphs was an old, dusty wooden sign. As I examined it, it appeared to be printed in plain English. It read “The sand that won’t budge will lead to your riches.”
Now that I took a better look around, there was a doorway that was blocked by extremely heavy sandstone that not even my pickaxe could break. Thinking of a solution to the riddle, I kept heading east and I stopped at another dune.
Another spring was half-buried under the rocks beside this dune. I suppose I have enough water to last quite a long time. I climbed the hill, and I saw something in the distance. I rubbed my eyes to make sure it wasn’t a mirage. But it was still there. It was some kind of village. It seems there are people here after all. I could only hope it wasn’t home to a bunch of zombies or Endermen.
When I got to the front of the village, I was surprised to see different creatures residing here. They closely resembled humans, they could speak, and they had many human qualities, as I saw houses and farms around.
As I stepped foot into the village, the villagers all stopped their activities and stared at me. I raised my arms, taking this opportunity to be awesome, and said “Fear not, villagers! I am an adventurer clad in iron armor! I mean no harm!”
Some of the villagers approached me. One of them, dressed in a purple robe, said “You do appear to be an adventurer indeed. It has been a long time since we had a visitor!”
“I have come in search of assistance. I survive off of only meat and I need something with higher nutritional value,” I said. But I didn’t want to be only a taker, so I added “In return, I will give you items to expand your village.”
“It would be our pleasure, good sir,” said a villager. “We have so much excess food, we would be happy to give some to you, brave explorer.” But before I could say anything, the villager added “But some mere building materials are ineffective when we only have two-thirds of our capacity.”
“What are you trying to say?” I asked him.
“Our population began dwindling less than a week ago, when we were suddenly attacked by a horde of ruthless green monsters that resembled humans.” I figured he was talking about zombies.
“How many of them were there?” I asked.
“We believe there were more than ten, perhaps fifteen of them. And lately, following their lead, the other creatures have decided to attack as well. We believe if the new monsters are slain, the others will be discouraged. Could we ask this task of you?”
I looked at the villagers around me. All of their eyes were upon mine. “Okay, I will help. Or, at least, I will do what I can with just this sword,” I said as I held up my worn stone sword.
The villagers all gathered in a huddle away from me. There weren’t that many of them, perhaps ten to twelve. After they were done speaking, the one in the purple robe said “we have a plan that will assist both you and us. Do you see that large jewel over there?” He pointed to a large blue jewel on top of a pole that glistened in the sunlight.
“Yes, I see it.”
“That jewel is the largest diamond we have ever found. It rests at the heart of the village and contains our very spirits and blessings.”
“Sounds pretty cool, but what about it?”
The villager said “This will require the skills of each of our professions. Our blacksmiths are going to forge the jewel into a powerful sword. Then, the librarian will make it stronger at the enchantment table. Finally, the farmers will get to work on making you the food you requested.” He turned to the others. “Is everybody ready? We have until sunset.”
The villagers scattered and began to work on the said plan. The one with the purple robe, who I figured was the chief, said “It is a shame to be using our precious diamond, but we must do this to save our village. Keep that sword in good hands when it is done forging.”
“You can count on me,” I said. “I will protect your village.”
The leader allowed me to lounge in one of the lodges to regain my energy. I was offered a few pieces of bread by the wheat farmers, which I ate rather quickly. A few minutes later, the chief walked in and said “your sword is almost ready. Come take a look.”
I followed him to the blacksmith’s shop, where he did his work over a small container of lava. The blacksmith kept many items in a nearby chest and was excellent with forgery. I knew this the second he pulled a glimmering blue sword out of a large furnace-like container. The sword glowed brightly with a red hue as it had just been taken out of the container sitting next to the molten lava.
I watched as it was taken to the librarian, even though I didn’t understand what a bookkeeper could do about a sword. As I observed, the librarian was a very talented man indeed. The enchantment table they spoke of was a table made of black stone with a floating book over it. This book contained the greatest knowledge about weapons and their hidden abilities.
The librarian placed the sword above the book and it floated in midair. He began saying a kind of spell or enchantment, I guess. Whatever he said though, it was definitely something important. The sword was suddenly engulfed in a strange light as it glowed with an intense purple hue.
I took the sword from where it was floating and looked at it. I could see the reflection of me and the librarian within the blade. At the hilt was a leather patching with two words engraved in it; Soul Bond.
“I trust this sword to you, with a piece of my magic,” said the librarian. I nodded and looked out the window. It was sunset.
I stepped outside as the villagers began retreating into their homes. “You’re our only hope. Please help us,” said the chief before he went inside the church nearby.
Night settled in as I stood outside and waited. I looked around the outskirts of the village. To the west and south was the desert with the sandstone mountain in the distance. To the east and north was a grassy, wooded land. Then I heard it; the grumbling of zombies. If there really were fifteen, this would be the rest of the crew. I saw two zombies approach the side of a building. The diamond sword pulsed with energy, as if it was feeding me its own adrenaline. I ran towards the zombies and took them out instantly. I was very surprised at the power of this new blade.
A spider jumped onto the roof of a low building. I climbed after it and whipped the sword through its stubby neck at light speed. Another zombie was wandering through the village, trying to find a house with people in it. Without fear, I jumped off the roof and came down with an epic stab. Three down, twelve to go.
I feel a thud from behind me, as if something hit my back armor. I turned around, seeing a skeleton with a bow pointed at me. He let loose another shot, which I blocked, and I punched the bow from his hands, shattering it as it hit the gravel. I wasted no time in destroying the skeleton, and spun around as I heard a zombie banging on a door. I took it out immediately.
I heard a pandemonium of grumbling. I turned around to come face-to-face with a huge gang of zombies. In my head, I quickly counted eleven in all. That was the rest of them. I slice two of them, and another tries to grab me by the shoulder. I shove it away and stab at it. In a sudden fury powered by the sword, I madly swung at the group without stepping back. In no time, I finish off the rest of the zombies.
But that wasn’t the end of it. The rattling of bones and hissing penetrates my ears. I look around, trying to find where the sound came from. Then, over the mass of dead bodies, I saw a spider crawling around a torch-lit pole, and a skeleton was riding on top of it.
The long range of a skeleton, the agility of a spider. I stared at the duo, saying to myself “Challenge accepted.” I ran toward them, hearing the ding of an arrow bounce off the blade, and jumped forward to attack. The spider dodged my attack, giving the jockey time to fire another arrow. I dodged the arrow, continuing my pursuit. The spider continued to zigzag around while the skeleton shot more arrows at me.
Suddenly, I felt a strong vibration as I felt something trickling down my arm. I looked at my arm, and at that moment, the pain came to me. I had been shot. In a few seconds, the blood was covering a large portion of my lower arm. I yelled in pain and fell against the wall of a house.
From inside a house, I heard somebody say “No!” I couldn’t let the villagers down. But the pain and the arrow must have something to do with a nerve ending, as I could barely move. The only thing I could do was rip the arrow from my skin and throw it like a dart at the spider. It missed.
The skeleton let the spider come to a halt as it focused a finishing shot on me. It was about to fire the arrow that could end my life.
In the close distance, I heard a howl. Me, the spider and the jockey looked in the direction the sound came from; the forest. Out of nowhere, a gray object darts from behind the trees and into the village at a blinding speed. It lunged into the air and fires itself like a torpedo, directly into the skeleton. As if in slow motion, I saw each and every bone fly out as the gray object dashed through the skeleton’s chest. The skeleton fell to pieces instantly. When the thing landed on the ground, I saw that it was a wolf. The wolf snarled at the spider, who tried to scurry away. But the wolf wasn’t letting it loose. He chased after the spider, grabbed hold of it, and tore it to pieces.
The wolf trotted to me and I expected it to eat me as they did in the storybooks. Ironically, he sat down next to me and rested his head on my lap.
A few villagers, considering it safe, exited their homes and immediately began to treat my puncture wound. It was doused in an herbal disinfectant and wrapped in gauze. When I got the strength to stand up, I thanked the villagers for helping me.
“No, thank you, brave explorer,” said the librarian. “You have defended our village and risked your life. You even suffered a potentially fatal injury if left untreated.”
I put my hand on the bandage, which was making the pain sore, but at least calming it a bit.
The leader came out from the church building and declared “For your selfless deeds, I grant you permission to keep this valuable weapon as a thanks from us. If you ever grow hungry or weary, we will supply you with whatever you need.”
“But still,” I said, “Thanks so much, guys. You still saved my life, which is plenty more than enough.” I pointed to the mountain. “My house is just beyond that mountain to the west. If anyone needs me, I’ll be there.”
As I began walking away from the village a few minutes later, I suddenly hear a villager call out “Wait!”
I turned around to listen to what the villager had to say. He was holding up a few shiny objects. “I found these in the pockets of those monsters. Perhaps you could use them.”
He gave me the items. One was a clock rimmed in gold. The other was a compass.
“Thank you,” I told him as he walked back to the village, saying “You’re welcome.”
When I began walking, I noticed the wolf was following me. I supposed he wanted to protect me. But cautiously, I patted him on the head. He opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out like any dog would.
When I returned to the shelter, I realized I called it a house back in the village. I suppose that’s what it is now; until I can find a way out of this place or have Amnesha take me back to civilization, which I doubted. I opened the door and let the wolf in. I set the clock on the table, where it said that it was 1:00 AM. I set the compass down as well. I realized that I left the bowl outside, but I was too tired to go out and get it.
I introduced the wolf to the place. “It’s not much, but I’ll see what I can do to improve. We’ll be here for a long time, anyway,” I said to the wolf. “Just you and me against the world, buddy.”
I needed a name for the wolf if he was to stay with me. I thought for a moment. I was amazed by the way he charged into that skeleton in mid-air. He wasn’t even afraid. He was a charging rhino.
“Rhino,” I said. “I think I’ll call you Rhino.”
Rhino stood on his hind legs to reach my eye level, and then he licked my face. When he was back on all fours, he wagged his tail. I fed him my last piece of lamb. Then, I removed my armor and set everything down beside the chest.
I climbed into bed, but Rhino preferred lying on the floor beside it. When I started thinking, it felt good to be the guardian of the village. Now they can grow and prosper. The other benefit was that I have a near-limitless supply of food thanks to them. And probably the best part was that I have their one sacred treasure as my weapon. And they helped me to my feet when I was shot with an arrow. I really had to owe it to them. And then, this wolf, Rhino, protected me from the spider-jockey.
Maybe I’m not all on my own after all.
I'm inactive, hoping to make a return one day.
i love pancake at the disco. i love their song "I like skin now marry me" and brendon theory is so hot
Shortly after I was awake, there was a knock on the door. I was almost surprised, but when I got to the door, it was a villager. He was holding a chest similar to the one I made earlier. When I opened the door, his face was relieved to see me alive and well. At the sight of the villager, Rhino wagged his tail.
“Good to see you, brave explorer,” said the villager. He set the chest down carefully and opened it.
“Good morning to you,” I replied, trying to be polite.
“We most certainly have not forgotten your heroic efforts, and we have brought you the food as promised.” I took a peek in the chest, which was a little chilly inside because a few blocks of ice were in it to keep the food cold. I saw several loaves of bread, slices of meat, some apples, and seeds. In the corner of the cooler was a bucket of milk.
“Wow, you guys really outdid yourselves here,” I said, closing the chest. Looking at the dark red stain on my bandage, I added “this will definitely help the healing process.”
The villager said “It’s the least we can do. We cannot thank you enough. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must get going. I have many crops to attend to. Have a nice day.”
“You too,” I said as the villager began walking away. I closed the door.
My house was beginning to get a little cluttered. This was a good opportunity to expand it by one room. On the opposite side of the furnace room, I used my stone pickaxe to excavate a chamber slightly larger than the furnace room. It had a shelf made of dirt and stone that extended across its width, and I placed my food chest on the shelf while placing the material chest in the diagonally opposite corner. This would be my storage room. It was just a good enough size, as my stone pickaxe broke when I had finished digging it.
With more space to roam, Rhino paced around the room happily with his mouth gaping. Then, he spun in a circle and sat beside me, as if he was anticipated to go on an adventure with me. But I noticed he was about to start drooling, so I went outside and led him to the water spring. While he drank the water, I picked up my sand-covered bowl, which I left outside the previous day, and washed it in the water. I scooped myself some water as well and drank it. Then, I stored the bowl in the food chest.
I eventually agreed with Rhino, as I had yet to solve the riddle of the sandstone structure just to the east. I loaded my backpack with my iron pickaxe, my torches, some food for me and Rhino, and my diamond sword. I put on my iron armor. Finally, we headed out to the mountain.
It didn’t take long to reach the mountain. Immediately, I began trying to decipher the hieroglyphs. There was one word etched into the inscribing in English: Butte. So that’s what this thing is called. The Butte. I vaguely remember a butte as being a large desert rock. It was a fitting name for this ruin.
Pondering the riddle was no easy task. The sand that won’t budge… it was confusing. Perhaps the sign was referring to the blocked doors that I couldn’t pass through?
Suddenly Rhino barked. I looked at him, asking “What is it?” He was looking at the ground. I studied the ground, but there was nothing but sand and our footprints. They led a trail to the Butte, like a long track.
Wait a second. Some of our footprints were missing. In one section of the trail, there was nothing. Inspecting it, I placed my hand on it. This wasn’t sand in the ground, it was sandstone.
The sand that won’t budge.
I dug out the block of sandstone. Beneath it was an old worn-out switch, attached to a line of red dust. Hoping for the best, I reached down and flipped the switch. Suddenly I hear the sound of moving mechanics as the two heavy blocks are pulled back and out of the way.
“Nice job, Rhino!” I exclaimed as Rhino inspected the open doorway. Prepared for anything, I walked inside.
The entryway after going inside the Butte was a stone staircase spiraling down. There were no longer many hieroglyphs, and most of the place was already lit with torches. As Rhino and I climbed down the staircase, I picked up any coal and iron that I found within the walls.
When we had climbed down for about fifteen minutes, we came to a dead end in the path that was beginning to flatten out. In the wall in front of us were several chunks of rocks and a block of sandstone. I remembered the sand that won’t budge, so I dug into that wall with slight hopes of finding something. When I dug it out, there was pitch-black in front of me, and I couldn’t see well. So I lit a few torches.
Nothing could have ever prepared me for this.
Underneath the Butte was an enormous underground ravine. A nearly endless tunnel with sharp, jagged rocks on all sides, and I found myself right between two of the Earth’s tectonic plates. I found a natural staircase of rocks leading down to the bottom of the ravine, but I wasn’t ready to head down yet. I sat down and ate an apple, and then tossed a piece of meat to Rhino. When I felt ready, I began climbing down the rocks, with Rhino cautiously following me.
Waiting for me at the bottom of the ravine was a spider. I slew it as quickly as I could before it attracted any attention. I was starting to feel the humidity down here. As I scanned the walls and floors, a glimmering object caught my eye. In the corner between the floor and wall was a sparkling stone. I set a torch by it and mined it. By the looks of it, I had mined some gold ore, which was still covered in little rocks. I finished mining the patch of gold, figuring I could smelt them like I did the iron ores.
That’s when I realized how proud of myself I was. I was mining gold. Few people in the world experience gold firsthand like this.
Rhino and I ventured deeper into the ravine, finding anything useful. There was a lot of gold down here, as well as a strange red stone that when mined, it collapses into dust. Still, I stored the red powder in my backpack for now.
When we saw a glow in the distance, we approached it. It was a small pool of lava. As we got closer, we began to see the heat waves and my skin was starting to feel hot. Rhino, however, kept walking ahead and sat near a dark corner of the ravine. I was about to ask him why he went there, but then I heard a hiss. I flick back with my sword drawn, ready to engage the spider. Wait a minute…
That’s not a spider.
It was some kind of green creature that stood at my height, and was shaped somewhat like a domino. It had four tiny legs as well. But the most shocking feature was its face. It had the screaming face I saw on the hieroglyphs. Its square black eyes and open mouth didn’t settle with me so well.
All of a sudden, it hissed loudly and flashed white. Before I could do anything, the creature exploded violently. It felt as powerful as TNT. I flew back over the entire lava pool and landed roughly on my back. I got up as quick as I could after getting a vision blur. The creature was gone, and it seemed that it was a suicide bomber of sorts. But it had been so silent, like it was sneaking up on me.
“Wow,” I said to Rhino. “What a creeper that was.” I didn’t seem to have any injuries besides a few scratches and a dent in my chest plate. I’m lucky it wasn’t so close to me when it exploded. If anything, Amnesha probably summoned it to warn me. I can still hear her words in my head; I’ll be watching you. Maybe I shouldn’t be down here, looting all her jewels and minerals.
I looked into the small crater the creature made. I saw a piece of iron ore and stone, but there was something at the center of the crater that didn’t look like anything I’ve found before. I carefully picked it out of the earth. It was a diamond. As I held the sparkling aqua gem close to my face, it seemed as if it was letting off its own glow. But I knew it was just the lava behind me that was doing that. Rhino looked up at me, as if urging me to go on.
I stowed the diamond in my backpack, and said “Let’s see if we can find any more of these,” making my voice echo off the huge walls. As we walked on through the ravine, it seemed to open up into a large cave that was much wider.
I looked up and I saw a large crack in the high ceiling, allowing a beam of sunlight to reach the cave floor far below. I was awestruck. This placed seemed like a huge underground sanctuary, seeing the gray light land upon a few small, battered buildings. What were they doing down here?
They were small houses, and only two of them remained standing. They were both surrounded in wooden rubble. I placed a torch to allow more light into the houses. Many of the walls were covered in scorch marks, and the roofs were nothing but a few flimsy beams holding it together. It was as if there was once a village down here, burned down by a great fire.
Before I could enter one of the houses, I saw a wandering skeleton attempting to keep watch of the area. Rhino growled very silently. I pointed to the skeleton, and Rhino dashed right into it, shattering its bones like he did to the jockey.
I noticed many parts of the walls were missing too. The entire place, with what little sunlight was given to it, made a very depressing atmosphere. I entered a house through a broken doorway with Rhino sitting outside to guard the house while I explored. There was a chest in the foyer of this small house. Inside, I found a note. I read it out loud, but just loud enough for me and Rhino to hear it; “To anyone that has found this note, I have fled as far as I could go with the rest of this village.” I stopped, trying to read the handwriting, which was hastily written. “Our village was burned down by some divine power. We are the last humans left as far as I know. If you have found this, the village was likely buried under the earth as they promised. And, even more likely, we might all be dead. Please, if you’re a human, leave this land now. It is far too dangerous.”
I set the note back in the chest as I processed what I just read. Divine power… that must be Amnesha. She hates humans. I clung onto the hope that there just might be humans out there. But I realized that if a group of humans tried to escape, Amnesha wouldn’t have allowed it. They had to pay for their mistakes.
There was also an empty bucket in the chest. I took it as it was just able to squeeze into the backpack.
I entered the next house and lit a torch on the table. Another scribbled note was sitting beside the table; “They didn’t like us for our newfound ability to travel between dimensions.” Whoever wrote this one must have been in more of a hurry than the last guy. There was a bookshelf in the corner of the room with just a few books that hadn’t been completely singed by the fire. One of them was purple with the pattern of a snowflake on it. Curious, I picked up the book and set it on the table.
The cover was badly burnt and I couldn’t read the title. I flipped through it, but apparently all the pages were frustratingly burnt.
Except for one.
I looked at the page. I saw pictograph of a vertical rectangle that was drawn in black. Beside it was a paragraph. I read it. “To create this portal, place blocks of obsidian in the fashion you see here, then light it with a Flint and Steel. Obsidian must first be mined with a diamond pickaxe, as it is cooled lava and a very dense material. Once activated, you will be allowed access into the-“
The rest of the page had been burnt.
If the cover of this book was a purple snowflake pattern, then the page mustn’t say more. That portal could be my ticket to the End that Amnesha had spoken about. No wonder Amnesha didn’t like humans; they experimented with dimension-warping abilities, which only she and Endermen could do. Finding obsidian could take a lot of work, and waiting for the lava to cool could take months. There had to be a way for the previous humans to get obsidian more easily. I know that water could probably speed up the process…
I looked into the new bucket, and as expected, it was rusted in dark red and brown. This bucket was used for water. And there’s a lava pool nearby. If I found an underground water source, I could put the lava out.
But what about mining it once I cooled it off? The book said that only diamond pickaxes could break obsidian. It took three planks of wood for me to craft a wooden pickaxe, then three blocks of stone, then three iron ingots. Presumably, it would take three diamonds to make a diamond pickaxe, and I had one already.
And finally, how would I find a flint and steel? I already had pieces of iron, but flint? In the past, I heard that flint is related to gravel in some way, so perhaps I should start digging through gravel to find it. So, after that, I just use the flint and steel to light a fire in the portal frame, and then the portal would open up? It was a lot more complicated than it sounds.
So first, I have to find water and throw it into the lava to cool it off, turning it into obsidian. Next, I needed to find two more diamonds to make my diamond pickaxe so I can mine the obsidian. Then, I have to find flint by digging through gravel, create the flint and steel, and light the finished portal frame.
Well then. Let’s get mining.
I'm inactive, hoping to make a return one day.
*poke* How do you come up with this?!
Okay, so here's my prediction:
Ha, poor main character is confused with the portals. How do I come up with this? Well, I came up with the main plot and didn't intend to make it a long story. But my friend gave me this awesome portal idea with the burnt village and such. We're almost co-authors.
Part 7:
Before I exited the broken house, I checked out the other two books on the shelf. One was about building snow golems and iron golems, which at the moment did not intrigue me. The other, whose title was not burnt, said “Monster Encyclopedia.”
I opened the book to the first page, which was about spiders. The only thing that seemed noteworthy was that some of them can be poisonous. The next page was about skeletons, which was too burnt to read. I flipped through the pages, seeing pictures of zombies and spider-jockeys. I stopped at a page that had a picture of the green bomber-monster. It was called a creeper, which I called it earlier coincidentally. The next page was on Endermen, where I read that “Endermen can teleport at will using an item within them known as an Ender Pearl. If you looked one in the eyes, it will attack suddenly.” I wanted to read on, but parts of the pages were missing.
I flipped to a page on wolves. “Unlike the wolves found back in civilization, these wolves will befriend you upon offering it a bone or two.” The next page was on a creature called an Ocelot. I saw a picture of what looked like a small leopard with wide green eyes. “A very shy creature, Ocelots will run away very easily upon seeing a human, unless the human is holding fish in his or her hand.” So this was the cat Amnesha was petting a week ago. She knew what it was and it probably knew her. I suppose she was right. It wasn’t a leopard.
The next page was about Silverfish. I didn’t understand, since silverfish are simply small bugs. Instead, I see a picture of a gray worm with particles of dust flying around it. “Silverfish only reside in strongholds. Not much else is known.” Good thing the text stopped there as most of the page was singed. The next four pages were burnt to a crisp as well.
On the last page there was a header that said “Ender Dragon.” I read the half-burnt page. “The Ender Dragon is the guardian of the End. It is a massive fire-breathing reptile covered in black scales and has purple eyes.” There was a sketch of the dragon, but no real picture. I read on. “The information and sketch were only what adventurers were able to gather as the End is an extremely dangerous place. “
There were no more pages left, so I returned the book to the shelf. I picked up my backpack and walked out through the fire-eaten doorway. “Come on, Rhino,” I said as Rhino got up and started following me. My first mission was to find water. I didn’t want to risk leaving this place and getting locked outside. Plus, the entrance to the Butte was quite far from here. So, I had to find an underground well.
We walked past the pool of lava and turned into a passage we hadn’t been to yet. My feet and hands were getting sore again, but this was the wrong time to drop out. This new path led into another cave system. I dug out some rocks, looking for diamonds, but there were none.
After some more time digging and fighting monsters, I was starting to run out of torches. I had lit an entire path of torches to the right hand side of the wall, so I could find my way back. I looked to the left and found a large clump of crushed stone what had a tough texture, but it was light and easy to dig. Hoping it was gravel, I kept digging. Eventually, a few pieces of a dark-gray material fell out of the wall. I picked them up, and to my relief, it was flint. I stored it in my bag, which was full to bursting.
I decided not to take any more stone, coal or iron as I had plenty of it, and I needed to save space in my backpack. Near the end of the cave, there was a small lava-fall oozing from the wall and spreading over the floor. I began to sweat again and told Rhino to sit a distance away so he didn’t overheat. He let his mouth hang open so he could get some air.
I placed blocks of cobblestone in the lava’s way so it wouldn’t overflow. When I walked to the other side, I noticed that there was a diamond buried behind the lava-fall. Carefully, I dug out the stone around it, reached my hand out, and snatched the diamond before the lava could overheat me or flow into the rock. My skin burned just a bit after I removed the diamond. Satisfied with my find, I set the diamond in the side pocket of the backpack, with the first one.
When I reached the end of the cave, I was out of torches. I looked around, trying to work with what I had. I reached into my backpack and took out a piece of iron ore. I slowly chipped the ore away with my pickaxe, using it as a chisel. I refined the ore the best I could, turning it into a non-smelted ingot. I threw the leftover stone chippings aside and took out a piece of flint. I stood in the corner of the cavern and smacked the flint into the ingot, suddenly sparking a flame that landed on the floor. Smiling at my makeshift torch, I put the flint and steel in my pocket for later use. I knew that the fire wouldn’t last long on the stone ground as it didn’t burn well as wooden sticks did.
I dug at the wall to try finding any diamonds. When I hit the pickaxe against a specific part of the wall, a sudden stream of water forced out of the hole in the wall, spraying me in the face. I shouted and jumped back at the feel of chilling water on my skin. When I recovered, there was a large puddle of water accumulating on the floor. I figured I must have run into one of the many aquifers that connect to the springs on the surface. And it was likely there was a huge chamber of water beyond this wall. The water began to feel warm. This was probably because the sudden rush of water startled my skin, so I couldn’t tell the temperature at first.
Rhino barked. I flicked back and looked in his direction. He began growling. I kept looking until I saw the clutter of eyes that a spider has. As it crawled into my view, it was similar-looking to the huge tarantulas that dwell in this place. However, its hairs were dark blue. I wasn’t frightened at all since this spider was only half the size of the regular spiders. Rhino tried to grab it, but this one was extremely fast. It scurried onto the wall and around the lava. I didn’t have time to get out my sword again, and the spider sprang onto my head and bit into my shoulder with a loud hiss. I yelled and shoved it off of me, trying to buy time. Angered, Rhino ran around the lava and seized the spider, tearing at its back. Trying to help Rhino, I kicked the spider and attempted to beat it into the wall. After several hits, it finally stopped moving.
I almost felt guilty, seeing the spider’s squashed body pressed into the corner of the wall and floor. But I didn’t have time for that; I was feeling an aching pain where the spider had bit me. I examined the wound, and noticed a tiny drop of dark green fluid beside one of the two puncture holes its fangs made. It had just missed my armor.
That’s when it hit me. Its fangs bit me there. This spider was probably one of the poisonous ones found in the book. Trying to combat the poison, I ate one of the slices of bread and an apple from my bag. Hoping Rhino was okay, I handed him some more meat.
The pain was still there, but it didn’t stop me. I let the flowing water fill up the bucket. Then collected some string from the spider, rolled it into a ball, and plugged it into the hole to keep the water from spilling out even more.
I continued my search for diamonds, holding the bucket carefully. When I didn’t see any, I hiked back to the pool of lava so I could throw my water into it to begin the cooling process. When I finally found my way there, I set my bucket down for a short rest on the ground. The food I ate wasn’t having much of an effect on the bite.
Rhino nuzzled me with his snout. I looked at him, rubbed his head, and asked “What’s the matter, boy?” He stood up on his hind legs and pointed his nose upward. I didn’t understand if he was doing some sort of dog trick, so I didn’t respond. He nuzzled me again, this time with more force.
I finally stood up, thinking he was pointing at something with his nose. Above me was a low-lying cliff that I would be able to climb if I jumped high enough and grabbed the ledge. Then, as I scanned it, I saw something lodged in the side of the cliff.
My third diamond!
The diamond’s aqua surface sparkled in the light of the lava, and I looked at Rhino to pet him and tell him how sharp of an eye he had. Out of nowhere, though, I heard a faint sound, and he pushed me away and barked loud enough to bounce off the cave walls.
I stepped back and looked at the cliff again. An Enderman teleported onto the cliff. As I observed its movements, it plucked out the chunk of stone containing the diamond with little effort. Then it laughed very slightly. “Hm hm hm hm.” Knowing it would anger, I looked it in the eyes despite how scary they were. Suddenly, I heard the swooping sound as it warped out of sight.
I guess Amnesha didn’t want my grimy hands on that diamond. Out of sudden anger, I shouted “Hey! Give it back!” like a kid getting his lunch stolen.
From a faint echo in the ravine, the Enderman spoke very softly in a muffled voice. “Come and get it.”
Swoop.
I was suddenly hit in the back, feeling a dent in the armor. When I recovered, the Enderman was still holding my diamond ore, using it as a weapon. Holding that heavy block of stone, and given its superior strength, the Enderman was extremely dangerous. Rhino tried to jump at it, but it simply teleported away. When it came back, I stepped away as quickly as possible, trying not to take a brick to the face. However, I wasn’t watching my footing, and suddenly I slipped on the bucket behind me. I fell back and the bucket launched forward, spilling a great deal of water.
Suddenly, upon coming in contact with the water, the Enderman let out a distorted scream and fell to the floor, apparently being mauled by the water for some reason. I watched as its body disintegrated, and a dark teal jewel remained in its place.
So that’s their weakness. Water.
I picked up the jewel, figuring that this was the Ender Pearl that was mentioned in the book. When I looked to the floor, I found that the Enderman had dropped the rock with the diamond in it as it touched the water. I mined it carefully with my iron pickaxe, seeing as it was showing a few signs of weakness. Satisfied with my third and hardest-earned diamond, I put it in the side pocket.
Coincidentally, when the water spilled out from the bucket, most of it landed in the lava. Since water was less dense than lava, it sat on top of it, slowly hardening the surface of it. While I waited for the cooling process, I reentered the abandoned village and sat at the table in one of the houses. I took out my last sticks and my diamonds, and began working on a diamond pickaxe. In about fifteen minutes, a surprisingly fast time, I finished crafting the pickaxe. When I held it up to the light of the torch, it sparkled.
I returned to the lava pool, which was no longer a pool at all. Amazingly, all the lava had cooled far sooner than expected, and now all I saw was a patch of translucent black obsidian. I went to work on mining it, which took a very long time considering how dense the material was.
When I put it all in a pile after mining it, I realized that it was far too much to fit in my bag. This means that I would have to take several trips back and forth from my house to collect it all.
I sighed at this problem as Rhino sat next to me. Again, I had to work with what I had. But that’s the thing; what I had was the problem. And I couldn’t make another backpack as I didn’t have any leather. I threw out all the scrap stone that didn’t have any minerals. I managed to fit a very small portion of the obsidian into the bag, and I didn’t want to throw out anything else. I felt my other pocket that didn’t have the flint and steel, and fished out the Ender Pearl. If I could find a way to teleport with this, going back and forth would be much quicker and I wouldn’t have to work my sore muscles more than I had to.
I held the Ender Pearl in the air like an idiot, and shouted “Home!” Nothing happened. Sighing again at my stupidity, I tossed the Ender Pearl behind me.
Suddenly I heard the swooping sound, and I found myself about five feet behind where I was just standing with the Ender Pearl at my feet. My jaw dropped and something just “clicked” into my head. I teleport wherever the Ender Pearl lands. Trying again, I tossed it near Rhino. Suddenly I heard the sound as I warped right in front of him, making him jump in surprise. I grinned, thankful that I stumbled upon this pearl. I noticed a couple of purple snowflakes drifting around me and slowly settling on the ground, then crumbling to dust.
I wondered how I was going to head back up with Rhino at the same time. I always saw in those fantasy television shows that someone would hold on to another, and they both warp simultaneously. Testing this theory, I threw the Ender Pearl on a high cliff that led to the entrance, then immediately hugged Rhino. At that moment, I found myself on top of the cliff, and Rhino was next to me. He was a little shaken by the sudden teleport, so I tried to be more gentle. I threw the pearl again, this time aiming at the wall I came in through. I hugged Rhino again as we both teleported next to the wall. This new plan was working out great, and the pearl wasn’t even scratched from hitting the floor.
The staircase was too narrow to have any throwing room, so I simply put it back in my pocket and we climbed up the stairs. My back was starting to ache from the heavy bag, and my infected shoulder wasn’t helping at all. But we finally reached the entrance of the Butte. I saw from the very faint glow that it was night again, probably in the early morning. I turned the corner to the entrance, and immediately I froze.
There was a creeper waiting for me at the doorway. Apparently, I must have just desecrated its temple. I reached my hand back and grasped my sword, prepared for the worst. I saw the moon far behind it, and the way its shadow cast a dark light over the faint glow made him look horrifying. Plus, its eyes were twinkling slightly purple, as if it was ready to dish out some pain in an innocent way.
Unusually, the creeper spoke to me slowly, in a very soft voice.
“That’s a nice everything you have there… it’d be a shame if something were to happen to it…”
I considered this as a threat. I stepped back, frightened at what it said. Rhino was behind me, too scared to engage the living bomb.
“I suggest you stay out of my way,” I told it. “Unless you want to get hurt.” I was not about to let a day of mining rare loots down the drain.
The creeper did not respond. Instead, its eyes returned to black and it began to slowly and silently creep in my direction. It hissed, meaning it was about to explode. In quick succession, I stepped forward and swiped with my sword, killing it rather quickly. It didn’t detonate, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Rhino walked a few steps, seeing that it was safe.
We walked back home as quick as we could, hoping that nothing else was stalking us. At my doorstep, I saw that there was a book sitting against my door with a letter attached to it. It read:
“Dear Brave Explorer
We wanted to see you again to give you this, but you were not at home, probably adventuring as we expect of you.
It would be our pleasure to aid you in your crafting techniques as our villagers are all skilled craftsman. With the help of the librarian, we put this book together that contains every crafting recipe we know. Don’t thank just me; we all threw in our bits of knowledge!
Sincerely,
Chief.”
I was starting to think that I seriously did a good job impressing them when I first arrived at the village. But it was nice of them. I picked up the book and headed inside.
It felt so good to be back at home, but there was still work to be done. I quickly built another chest, which would hold my epic loots, and set it on the shelf beside the food cooler. I made two more furnaces and shoved them into the cramped shelf in the furnace room, which I knew for sure could not hold more than three. I then inserted an equal amount of coal into each, and stored iron ore in the first two, and gold ore in the third to smelt. I fired up the furnaces, then I set my book on the table next to the clock, which said 2:14 AM. I used some of the sticks I left in the chest to make several torches, three of which I lit and hung outside the door to keep monsters away.
Once my bag was unloaded, I kept my sword, flint and steel, and the Ender Pearl. I left the obsidian on my floor since I was going to use it later.
I considered it to be a little bit dangerous and a hefty job to bring Rhino with me back to the Butte. I told him to sit as I closed the door, hoping he wouldn’t try to follow me. This was the first time I went somewhere without him since we met.
I got back to the Butte and dropped the Ender Pearl all the way down the stairs, teleporting to the bottom instantly. I walked to the ravine and threw it as far as I could to the obsidian mine. When I teleported, I was still a small distance from the obsidian I left there. I didn’t know whether or not I could use it for a certain amount of times, so just to be sure, I walked the rest of the way to the obsidian.
I stored up all the rest of it in the backpack. Then, I teleported my way up the ravine and out of the Butte. There were surprisingly no monsters around other than a skeleton way far off in the distance. I returned home, impressed with my torches at the front wall, and opened the door. Rhino wagged his tail and tried to jump on me in happiness. I guess he’s an over-positive dog.
I emptied the obsidian on the floor, making a large pile beside the table. I removed the finished iron from the furnaces and stored them in my loots chest. I took out the gold, quite happy with how pure it looked, and stored it away as well. I put the flint and steel on the table, and the Ender Pearl in the loots chest. I considered reading the recipe book before bed, but it was late and I needed sleep more than anything. Classically, I drank some of the milk from the cooler before I went to bed. I was not sure how they made it, but the milk from the villagers’ farm was very tasty. And I somehow felt relieved of the poison.
I climbed into bed, putting away my armor and thinking that I would build the portal when I awaken. It was funny; the idea of portals seemed like nonsense just last week. Now, I’ve risked my life several times to find the materials to make one. My hands were becoming battered and scratched again, so now was the time to get some rest.
The image of the creeper standing at the doorway to the Butte came to my mind. It was frightening that it was there, as if it knew I was going to be there. Then, its eyes. They didn’t look black, instead a shade of purple. And it spoke. Threatening me of everything I had in my backpack, my hard-earned loots, even my house, possibly. It was as if it had been possessed to bring me this message…
Then it hit me like a punch to the face. That voice.
It was Amnesha’s.
I'm inactive, hoping to make a return one day.
Get ready for the best plot twist ever.
Part 8:
Today was the day I was ready to give Amnesha a piece of my mind. I wanted to show her how far I’ve come since I got here. She stabbed us in the back without solving things with words. She left me here to die. She only kept me alive for her amusement. And she threatened my progress through that creeper.
And to portray the power of good, I was going to try settling things nonviolently. So if I was killed by her, at least I would have had a good spirit. I had to dig deep down into the pits of Heck just to stay alive. Surely, I had every right to be bothered.
But I felt good about myself today.
It’s probably overconfidence turning to suicide, but I can’t just sit here in the overworld and be a source of entertainment. I built myself from the ground up. I had to hunt for my own food, starting out with measly wooden tools. I made my own house. I saved a village from destruction. I befriended a wolf. I fought many creatures, even killing one of Amnesha’s own henchman… though accidentally. I even mastered the Ender Pearl, as I practiced teleporting and throwing the pearl this morning.
I had gotten to work on building the portal frame by making a large vertical rectangle out of obsidian, standing up. When I finished, I took a rest inside the house.
Remembering that I called it home earlier, I smiled. After building up quite an “egg nest” as Amnesha called it, I was really impressed with what I had here. This place really was starting to feel like home.
Before leaving to activate the portal, which I built outside in the field, I made sure I took care of things first. I made a large bowl and filled it with meat for Rhino, since I didn’t plan on bringing him with me. If I died in the End, I wanted him to live a full life, so I also opened the front door and kept it open. I then bathed in the spring again, making sure my clothes were clean so I would look presenting.
I went back inside and sat down on the bed, opening the recipe book and wanting to take a look at it for what could be my last time. There were a few recipes on every page, including basic tools like axes, shovels, and swords. I found that I could make another clock by placing gold in a round fashion, then filling it with the red dust I collected at the Butte. I could also make a compass in a similar way by using a round of iron instead of gold and using the red dust for the pointer. What was interesting was that I could make a map by surrounding the compass in paper, which can only be made from sugar cane. Apparently, the dust from the red stone was used in making powered contraptions such as pistons and redstone torches, which are crucial to operating these things. So the dust was like an alternative to electricity since the atoms in the dust were powered with similar energy.
When I closed the book and slid it into my backpack, I was reminded that I should probably visit the village to let them know where I was going and to thank them for their gifts. I set off for the short walk to the village and Rhino followed me there. Upon arriving, the villagers smiled at my presence and some of them greeted me.
“Welcome back, adventurer!” one of them said to me.
“Hey,” I said. “It’s good to see you again. I would like to thank you guys for putting this book together.”
“You’re very welcome,” said the villager.
“I would like to tell you people something very important,” I said as more villagers crowded around me. “Today, I am going to activate a portal that will take me to a new dimension. Please, I do not recommend that you try to enter this portal, as the world beyond it is very dangerous. I do not know if I will come back alive, so I wanted to say my goodbyes if something does happen to me.”
“But, brave adventurer, you must be safe. If something happens to you, we won’t have a true leader.”
“What?” I asked. “You mean to say that Chief isn’t your true leader?”
“Of course he is,” said the villager after a short pause. His face looked grim.
Not sure what to say, I asked “What’s the matter?” The villager shook his head slowly.
“Chief passed away last night.”
My eyes widened. “What? How?”
The villager took a deep breath. “He was a very elderly man, although you couldn’t tell. He had the will to stay alive until he was certain someone else was capable of leading the village. That someone was you. He wanted to die knowing that the village would still be safe without him. He used up the last bit of energy he had to give you that book. He passed away shortly after coming back, knowing that his life was complete.”
After hearing this, I was close to tears. But I knew I couldn’t show any weakness, not in front of my people. It felt strange thinking it, but it was true. These were my people now, and I was their leader. I knew they would look up to me when I first arrived, but I would have never thought they would to this extent. I was trusted with the greatest responsibility by the chief himself.
“Well,” I began. “I’m not sure if I really know much about leading a village.”
I saw the librarian emerge from the group. “That won’t be a problem,” he said. “The diamond we crafted into your sword contained our very spirits and blessings, as Chief put it. His spirit, along with all of the other villagers who have ever lived on this ground in the past, are all within that sword. Their spirits dwell within it and they have become a part of you, adding their strength to yours. Why else did the enchantment table engrave ‘Soul Bond’ to the hilt?”
I smiled. It was relieving to know that the souls of so many villagers have accompanied me this whole time, which is probably why I haven’t died after all this.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll lead this village. But I must enter the portal first. I will bring the sword with me to give me strength.”
The villagers were nodding, allowing me to take care of business. I bid them farewell and thanked them for their appreciation. Then I started walking back home. Rhino had been quiet the whole time as he knew what was going on.
I returned home and continued preparing for my trip to the End. I wanted Amnesha to be impressed with my progress, so I packed every valuable item I had; my diamond pickaxe, the Soul Bond, the Ender Pearl, and the recipe book, which was already in there. I also put in some food, in case the End was a huge place. I also made and packed more torches. I knew for sure it was going to be dark, since Endermen were practically shadows. In case I needed to build something, I brought some wooden planks, stone, iron and gold ingots, and the red dust. My backpack wouldn’t hold much more, so I decided that that would be enough. Finally, I wore my iron armor, which I tried my best to repair, but couldn’t.
I picked up the flint and steel and walked over to the portal. This was the moment to see if the frame really would sprout a portal. I set the flint and steel over the frame, and sparked a fire.
Suddenly, the fire floated to the center of the frame and stretched to fill the interior. Then, all the fire turned into a purple swirling vortex with purple snowflakes floating out of it. I shouted “Yes!” The portal worked, and I was certain that the End was just beyond it.
I turned around and looked at Rhino, who was staring up at me. “Sorry, Rhino. You can’t go with me,” I told him. He stood up and licked my nose. I hugged him for what seemed like a long time, and his tail was drooping. It made me sad. If I died in the End, I would be letting Chief down, who trusted the lives of his people in my hands. I would also be letting Rhino down, since I didn’t want him to think this was the last time I’d see him. So then, failure is not an option. I have to stay alive.
I felt a chilling wind coming from the portal, welcoming me in a non-welcome way. As if the wind was speaking to me, saying “come in, I dare you.”
Not showing any fear, I stepped into the portal. My vision was suddenly clouded with purple, I heard a blaring noise, and I felt myself spinning as I was being pulled into a totally different world.
When my vision cleared, I was suddenly overtaken by a hot feeling. I looked around, inspecting the new environment. I was standing on a pink-red rock, which I saw all around me. I was standing in the center of a large, yet not deep, depression in the ground. This must have been a huge cave, since the ceiling was far above me, again made of that pink-red stone.
I looked to the right, suddenly startled by a huge flow of lava that was dangerously close to me. I jumped back to avoid getting burned, and I saw that the lava flow came from a long trail that came down the depression, originating from a hole in the ceiling.
I noticed that there was fire burning on many parts of the ground. I was starting to get the impression that I must have traveled to Heck. I began walking, holding up the Soul Bond in case anything was going to attack me. I climbed the ramp out of the depression, and I was amazed by what I saw. There was a large gang of humanlike figures nearby. Out of curiosity, I approached them.
They weren’t humans. They looked like zombies, but they looked more rotten. Half of their bones were visible, and their skin was pink. A tiny portion of green slime was oozing from beneath their skin and onto their bones. However, despite their hideous appearance, they were holding gleaming golden swords in their hand.
I stood there and stared at them, unsure of whether to run or fight. Most of them stared at me, until, ironically, one of them spoke.
“Well, look what we have here! It’s a human! It’s been a long time since we’ve seen you chums around here.” Its voice was scratchy, probably from decay.
“Um, who are you guys?” I asked.
The zombie raised his sword and shouted proudly “We are the Pigmen! The knights of the Nether!”
“Um… okay, I guess,” I said. Since his voice was raspy, I could’ve misheard what he said and mistaken End for Nether, which both sounded similar. And even though they were zombies, they call themselves Pigmen. Now that I took a good look at their faces, or what’s left of them, their faces resembled pigs. So that’s what they are; Zombie Pigmen.
“Do you guys know where the ruler’s castle is?” I asked them as they kept looking at me.
“Of course we do,” said the Zombie Pigman. “It’s that way, but don’t try to go in. He doesn’t like trespassers.”
“Okay, thanks.”
I was feeling uneasy as I walked away in the direction he pointed. First off, it was extremely hot in here, and in the distance I could see many heat waves taking up the air. Second, I don’t see any Endermen in here, only Pigmen. Well, I haven’t explored this place enough, so maybe I’m just overreacting. But the Pigman called the leader “he.”
I was starting to get a bad feeling about this.
I lost my train of thought as I heard a strange slapping sound. Like the sound of goo hitting a solid surface. I looked to the right and saw a huge cube of dark red magma with yellow eyes staring at me. It jumped into the air, falling into many slices of magma in the air, and then reformed when it came back down, making that slapping sound.
The cube was bouncing toward me, and I didn’t want to get burnt, so I slashed it with the Soul Bond. But it split into two halves, each of them still bouncing at me. I swiped at each one, which split into even smaller versions of themselves. Figuring that this creature wasn’t going to die easily, I started to run away from it as it was a slow mover.
I stopped a far distance away, trying to catch my breath. I looked up and noticed a huge clump of glowing yellow stone, which gave off a strong light. I climbed a hill of the pink-red stone as I wanted to collect some as a light source. When I mined it, it fell into large piles of dust, which was a good thing since this could never fit into my backpack in its true form.
Suddenly, above the sound of fire and lava, I begin to hear someone crying. I wasn’t sure who it was; it didn’t sound like Amnesha’s voice, or anyone else’s for that matter. It started sobbing, and at one point even purred like a cat. It was strange, all the things that have happened in the last ten minutes. But the voice sounded like it was pained by something bad.
Before I knew it, a piercing scream penetrates my ears, and out of nowhere I see a small explosion right next to me as I fly off the hill. I wasn’t in a lot of pain thanks to my armor, but I was stunned by what just happened. Actually… what just happened?
I ran back around the hill with the Soul Bond drawn, looking for what just attacked me. Suddenly, in the distance, I see a gigantic white jellyfish-like creature that was perhaps four times my size. It was drifting through the air aimlessly like a ghost. Its face was covered in tears and its eyes were closed. It almost looked angelic to me. But it was far from it. The jellyfish monster opened its eyes, which were maroon with anger, and it screamed at me again, opened its mouth, and spat a huge fireball in my direction. I dodged, and the fireball exploded on contact with the ground, setting everything around it ablaze.
Finding it impossible to face this new creature, I began sprinting as fast as I could away from it. I came to a halt as I almost ran over the edge a cliff. Below it was an enormous lake of lava. In panic, I changed direction and just barely missed being blown up by a fireball.
As I kept running, I turned back to see the jellyfish a bit further from me, However, I wasn’t watching where I was going, and I rammed directly into a Zombie Pigman. He fell down to the ground and made the sound of a shrieking pig. He pointed his sword at me and yelled “Hostile! Engage the human!”
Now I’m really in for it.
From several directions, squadrons of Zombie Pigmen were charging after me like there was no tomorrow. All of them were yelling and squeaking like pigs, with every last sword pointing upward. So now I had an angry mob after me.
I kept running as fast as I could handle, which wasn’t fast enough. Apparently, all of the Pigmen in this place knew that I was hostile, and even the ones far in front of me tried to charge at me. I had no choice; I sliced my Soul Bond through them, clearing a path in the ever-growing rush of Pigmen.
I ran down a hill, and at the bottom was an unusual gray sand that had an odd texture. As I tried to run over it, it suddenly slowed me down because of its composition. I began hopping like a mad rabbit to the end of the field of sand, desperate to get away from the army of Pigmen and the jellyfish creature. Speaking of which, it was perfect timing; another jellyfish decided to join the chase in pursuit of this outsider.
Behind me, the pandemonium of Pigmen and the screaming of those jellyfish were driving me into a wild panic. I lunged my way over a huge gap in the ground as we were starting to enter the land bridge above the lake of lava. In a burst of superhuman speed, I whipped out my pickaxe and dug out the rest of the gap as fast as I could.
The Zombie Pigmen stopped at the gap. Then, one by one, they all jumped into the lava, laughing, and they began to swim through the lava to the other side of the land bridge. I yelled in horror at their immunity, and began running again.
The lava would slow them down, but not for long. I entered a wide opening into another huge cavern. There was another hill here, and I thought it would be my last. I was running out of energy. I didn’t think I had the strength to continue, but I still climbed that hill. My armor was starting to overheat.
It actually was the last hill. Over that hill, my eyes were affixed on what was before me. At the top of this hill was a huge castle, tall and wide, made out of dark purple bricks. There was lava pouring down the sides of some of it.
This was it. This had to be Amnesha’s castle.
I walked in through the large open entrance. The place was a little dark, as the windows were merely purple bars made of those purple bricks. I placed a torch to light the hall, which was long and separated into several paths. I passed a small farm of sorts that was growing a weird red budding plant. As I got further into the fortress, it was getting unusually quiet. I didn’t hear the Pigmen or the cries of the jellyfish.
At the end of the hall, I caught a glimpse of a yellow fire that flew to the other side, not noticing me from this distance. I didn’t know what it was as I couldn’t see that far.
All of a sudden, despite how hot this place was, I got a chill down my neck. I felt as if I were being watched.
I went on through the castle, but there was no sign of Amnesha, or anyone else. I looked at my hands, and noticed they were trembling. My skin was starting to turn red. I took off my backpack and reached for the food inside it. I ate some. But I was hot, not hungry. I felt stupid for not bringing a closed container of water with me. I was no longer sweating, as my body had used up its reserve of water.
I couldn’t bear the heat anymore. I lay down on the hot bricks and passed out.
When I awoken, my armor was gone. I was suddenly alarmed and searched for my backpack, which was also missing. And I wasn’t in the same room as I was last time. I was in what looked to be a jail cell. I stood up. But at the very second I did, I met eye-to-eye with a terrifying man with dead, blank white eyes. He was staring at me from the other side of the bars. I was frozen with fear. I couldn’t move. His glare was arresting. He was wearing a blue shirt and pants, with a golden crown upon short brown hair. And still, blank eyes that stared deeper into my soul than an Enderman could ever do.
After a few minutes of dead silence, I had the nerve to ask “Who… are you?”
Immediately, he replied. “I am Lord Herobrine, ruler of the Nether.” His voice sounded demonic and robotic at the same time. “You have trespassed into my territory.”
I was beginning to tremble. “N-Nether?”
I had not misheard what the Zombie Pigman said. I should have listened to my guts. I angered a whole colony of Pigmen, and I was attacked by fire breathing jellyfish. I had collapsed of a heat exhaustion, and thrown into a jail by the ruler of this place. The Nether.
And that wasn’t the End of it.
I'm inactive, hoping to make a return one day.
Now I'm wondering how the main character is gonna get out of this...
Part 9:
“The Nether?” I repeated. “This isn’t the End?”
“Of course this is the Nether, stupid human,” said the man called Herobrine.
I tried my best to stay calm. “But there were purple snowflakes flowing around the portal.”
“Do not try to hide your fear, human,” said Herobrine boldly. “I can sense fear. It feeds my energy.”
Despite how much I tried to hide it, it was true. His eyes didn’t have a single thing but blankness. They wanted to suck me into another universe. And I was frightened.
“I need to go to the End,” I pleaded. “Could you please let me out?”
“Humph!” Herobrine laughed suddenly. “I knew the Pigman told you specifically not to enter this place. Too bad for you, human. You are going to die in here. You are a lost cause.”
I thought about this. And I thought about accepting my fate. I had wandered into Herobrine’s castle without permission, and I didn’t listen to my gut instinct. Overconfidence kills.
It seemed like I failed Rhino and the villagers. Rhino may never see me again. And the villagers trusted me with their one treasure. Even the chief died knowing I could protect his village for him. And from what I see here, this was it. I failed all of them.
A lost cause.
I wanted to cry, but again, my body didn’t have sufficient water to produce any tears. I couldn’t end it this way. There had to be a way out, while I’m still conscious and have a fighting chance.
“Listen, sir,” I began before being cut off by him immediately.
“Do not call me sir. You shall refer to me as Lord Herobrine.”
“I’m sorry… Lord Herobrine. I want to make it up to you. I’ll do anything for my freedom,” I pleaded again.
Herobrine scoffed. “Hm. I would rather watch you die slowly. But if you really do feel up to a task…”
“Yes!” I stated. “Anything!”
“Actually, make it two. First, we are on a shortage of gold because the Nether ran out of resources many years ago. Give me all of your gold ingots,” said Herobrine.
“Okay, I’ll give you my gold. They’re in my backpack if you still have it.”
“Excellent. Because I stole them from you while you were unconscious.”
I was dumbfounded. “Well then, what’s the second task?”
“I request that you undo the damage you humans have done to my kingdom. Behind the castle are the remains of our lava ocean. It is three miles long. Long ago, a foolish human like yourself poured pure water over it, and eventually it became stone. If you can find a way to replenish the lava, freedom will be yours. And my creatures will no longer harm you. Plus some other miscellaneous gifts, since the ocean of lava is one of my greatest values in the Nether. Do you think you could handle it?”
Not even I expected something so impossible. An ocean of lava, three miles long… How could that be accomplished?
“I will do what I can,” I said. “But I need my gear to help me.”
“Do not let me down, human. And do not underestimate me either. If you dare try to leave, I will catch you. But for now, to allow you to work on this project, I will tell my creatures to not hurt you.” He paused for a moment, then said “That Ghast gave you quite a scare, did it not?”
“The Ghast? As in that jellyfish?” I asked with recognition.
Herobrine nodded. “If you are going to fix my ocean, think strategically. That is all I can say.” He opened the purple gates. “Now go. The room with the humans’ belongings is that way, and the exit is right after it.”
Slowly walking through the open gate, I said “Thank you” and walked off into the storage room.
I could tell this room wasn’t opened for a long time, as it was dusty and humid inside. There were four chests in this room, which must have held the items that previous humans had before dying here. The first chest contained very old items, such as worn-out stone tools and worn-out leather armor. Leather was so weak it wouldn’t be considered armor anyway. The second chest held more tools, and a bowl with rotten food.
The third chest must have been the person who solidified the lava ocean. His chest contained buckets of water, glass bottles holding a strange orange potion in each, and… what’s that? Is that… diamond armor?
I held the blue metallic-looking plates of armor. It was a full set; the helmet, chest plate, leggings and boots. Herobrine said I could use what’s in these chests, right? I believe so. So I put on the diamond armor, feeling much more protected than my iron armor since it was slightly damaged. I also took the bottles with the orange liquid, thinking they would be handy at some point. And I drank some of the water from one of the buckets, despite how old and possibly dirty it must be.
Finally, I opened the chest with my items, the fullest chest of the bunch. I took out my backpack which had most of my items, the Ender Pearl, and the flint and steel, leaving only the iron armor. I left the room and headed down the stairs to the back exit.
From the outside, the fortress was marvelous, seeing hundreds of thousands of Nether bricks all at once. But this wasn’t the time for sightseeing; I had a three-mile round trip ahead of me. And yet again, I had to work with what I had.
I was going to be here for a while, and I couldn’t lug all my stuff around the whole ocean. I mined some of the Nether rocks, using them to build a small open shed to keep my items in. There were many wells of lava nearby, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to refill the ocean by using rapid refills of buckets. The stone stretched as far as I could see, so I had to get to work immediately.
I set up a new table from my wooden planks and began crafting buckets with my iron. I made three. There was a chance that I could get severely burned trying to scoop lava out with a bucket to pour it into the dried ocean, but I had to take risks. Standing near the bubbling lava, I slowly and carefully dipped the bucket in by the handle, filling it with lava. I carefully walked to the shore of the dried ocean and threw the lava into it. I watched how far it would go. I was not impressed.
At this rate, I may never get out of here.
There had to be another way. I thought for some time, and then I sparked an idea. I went to one of the lava wells and began mining a path through the Nether rock, trying to get it to flow into the ocean. The plan worked, and it went much further than the bucketful. But I still had a long way to go.
Nether rock was easy to mine. I spent the next few hours or so connecting all of the lava rivers, ponds, wells, and lakes to the ocean. It filled up a great deal and I was starting to get impressed with my work. I probably filled up half of the ocean.
There weren’t many more bodies of lava that I could use, so I was running out of options eventually. I thought through what I had again.
That’s when I remembered the recipe book. Perhaps something could help me if I knew how to build it. I returned to my campsite and took the book from the backpack. I flipped across the tools section as I didn’t need any tools, and to the Redstone section, as I could probably find something neat to build. And I haven’t built anything with redstone dust yet.
I looked up and instantly caught the glare of Herobrine’s eyes, who was watching me from atop his castle. I had to find a good redstone contraption, and fast. I studied the items on each page, making a mental note to create redstone torches to power the contraptions. Pistons wouldn’t do; they only push things with a powered arm. If anything, they would only block the lava flow. Redstone dust was a major ingredient in certain kinds of powered railways, but this would in no way help me. I skipped the compasses and clocks since they wouldn’t help either, or even work in this new dimension.
One of the last redstone-powered items was the Dispenser. It seemed simple to craft. I needed a large square of hollowed stone, redstone dust at the base, and a… a bow on the inside.
A bow? How would I find a bow down here? I didn’t bring one with me. I could make one, as I had the sticks. But I needed a string for it, which I didn’t bring.
I noticed a large magma cube bouncing its way into the ocean to take an early lava bath. Before it jumped into the lava, a piece of itself flew out and landed on my foot. I thought it would burn me, but it cooled rather quickly. It was like some kind of greenish-orange magma cream. I picked it up, trying to mold it into a thin piece of makeshift string. It worked, and good timing too; the cream began to harden slightly. Quickly, I tied the cream around the sticks for the bow. Ironically, it worked very nicely. I didn’t even need string.
I followed the recipe, making the hollowed box of stone with two holes in it, one for the hatch where you place items in, and the other for the launcher, where the inserted item is apparently “dispensed.” I wanted to see if inserting a bucket of lava would make a natural-looking lava flow, since I read that items such as arrows are dispensed fast, and others are dispensed more slowly. After that, I inserted the bow and hooked up the redstone dust to it and inside the cube. The redstone, with its energy effect, will make the bow’s string shake, releasing whatever it was holding.
When I was done building it, I went ahead and made a redstone torch by lighting the stick with redstone instead of coal. This would be the power source for the dispenser.
I was beginning to feel affected by the heat, despite how much my diamond armor was able to resist it. I held one of the two glass bottles of orange liquid, not sure what it would do. But if the guy who owned these really did pour water over the whole ocean, he must have been here for a long time. Maybe these potions helped him? I opened one of the bottles and drank it at my own risk. The taste was off, but suddenly I was getting a cooling feeling like I had been doused in water. This was probably a potion of fire resistance, because the heat was just not affecting me anymore. I didn’t know how long it would last, though.
Suddenly, I heard sobbing again. It was that jellyfish monster… the Ghast. It drifted over to the shore of the ocean, and stopped next to a hill of Nether stone. Its eyes were still closed, but it apparently knew I was here. It was facing me, so I figured it wanted me to approach it or something. I climbed the hill, wondering what it wanted. The top of its head was at level with the hill. Did it want me to sit on top of its head?
I took my chances, and with my dispenser, bucket, and redstone torch in my hands, I walked onto the top of its massive head, asking myself what the heck I was doing, and I sat down on it. The Ghast could definitely hold my weight, but its motives were beyond me. It began floating into the air and started drifting across the ocean. I was afraid that I would fall down.
The Ghast purred like a cat again. I didn’t know how to speak Ghast, so I simply nodded, again wondering where it was taking me. I was sitting there on top of its head for a very long time, perhaps an hour or more, while it lazily drifted to the other side of the ocean.
There was not as much lava here due to the insufficient number of lava wells. However, there was a cliff standing tall at the very end of the ocean. From what I saw in the impressions on the cliff, lava had once flown here. This was a good place to put the dispenser.
When the Ghast reached the cliff, it stopped so I could get off at the top of the cliff. I placed the dispenser at the front of the cliff, above a large ramp that went downhill and into the ocean. Carefully, and after filling it with lava, I placed the bucket inside the dispenser and tilted it slightly so that it wouldn’t spill early.
At that moment, I heard a metallic breathing sound, like a demonic robot voice similar to Herobrine’s. I turned around and I saw the yellow fire creature that I barely caught a glimpse of earlier. It had a yellow and brown body, smoke around its head, and six rods were floating and rotating around it. As if this creature was somehow a fire spirit. The spirit observed as I got the dispenser set up. Then, I placed the redstone torch on the side of the dispenser, which gave it a sudden red glow. Then, the dispenser made a clicking sound as I saw a large flow of lava suddenly come out from the dispenser. I smiled at my genius plan, even though there wasn’t that much lava in the dispenser.
The fire spirit beside me suddenly caught itself on fire and blew three fireballs into the dispenser. I wanted to ask what it was doing, but I saw what it did. It gave the dispenser a boost, and there was even more lava pumping through at a faster rate.
I looked over the cliff, amazed by what I saw. The hill beneath me made the lava spread out, giving a much bigger effect and further filling up the ocean. I had made the biggest lava-fall ever.
Before I could think of anything else, I saw a group of Zombie Pigmen walking in a single-file line to the ocean. Each of them was holding a block of that gray-brown sand. As I listened, one of them said “At last we have a good use for this Soul Sand.”
“Yep, since we found out it melts and adds to the lava real easily,” replied another.
“Wow, look at this new ocean. I guess humans aren’t that bad.”
“Alright! Teamwork, fellas!” one of them shouted as they each began to throw some of the Soul Sand into the lava, expanding it even more.
I was genuinely amazed by how much we got done, and the lava ocean was becoming completely full.
Out of nowhere, Herobrine said “Well well, human. It seems you have redeemed yourself. Well done.”
I looked behind me, directly into Herobrine’s eyes. “I didn’t think I could do it, but I did. Am I done here?”
Herobrine was baffled at the finished ocean. He said “It took you an awfully short amount of time… how did you do it, human?”
I turned and looked at the Ghast who brought me over here. Then I looked at the spirit who fueled my dispenser. I looked down at the line of Pigmen staring up at me, and, last but not least, the magma cube, bathing in the lava, who gave me the magma cream.
I looked into Herobrine’s eyes again, without any fear, and shouted “Teamwork, fellas!”
I'm inactive, hoping to make a return one day.
Well, they want their bath. I would help too if a swimming pool was dried out. xD
Part 10:
“Words cannot express my gratitude, human,” said Herobrine. “But perhaps rewards can.”
“Lord Herobrine, you’ve given me my freedom. Isn’t that enough?” I asked. We were standing at a high point in his castle overlooking the new lava ocean.
“Listen, human,” he said. “When that foolish one dried out my lava ocean years ago, it was painful on us. This was the Nether hotspot for all of the creatures. Every day, I would enjoy standing here watching the view of the ocean. But after it was solidified, it would bother me, not seeing my most prized possession. This is why you deserve rewards for your backbreaking efforts.”
I was relieved to finally have my freedom alone. But additional rewards? There had to be some awesome things that only a ruler would have.
“Besides your freedom, I will give you my creatures’ respect as said earlier. Plus, I will bestow upon you the ability to brew potions, such as the one you have there,” he said, pointing to the empty and full bottles of orange liquid.
“How do I make potions?” I asked.
“You must use a Brewing Stand,” said Herobrine. “It is made of cobblestone and a Blaze rod for magic purposes. If you’ve seen, the Blazes are the spirits that guard my castle.”
I nodded, listening to him closely.
“A brewing stand can’t quite fit into that bag, can it? Do not worry, I already have it all set up at your house. I even included the ingredients for brewing potions.”
“What?” I asked.
“Ha, I’m a ruler of a dimension, remember? I can control almost anything. Almost…” said Herobrine, looking lost in thought.
“I see. Nice job, Lord Herobrine,” I replied.
“Moving on, I will grant you one of my greatest weapons to aid you on your quest. The Homing Bow,” he said, putting emphasis on the Homing Bow.
I was confused. “What kind of bow is that?”
Without having to go look for it, Herobrine made the Homing Bow appear out of thin air in his hands. “This is crafted of only the finest of diamonds and of a thin silver string. This is the only one in existence.” The Homing Bow was the most beautiful bow I’ve ever seen. Its astonishing glow, crystal surface, and silver string gave it a royal appearance. Only someone who was worthy could ever even dream of holding this weapon.
“It looks like this won’t ever break. How powerful is it?” I asked.
“Do you see that clump of gravel in the distance?” Herobrine asked. I looked far out onto a cliff above the ocean, seeing a line of thick-looking gravel jutting out of it. I nodded. Herobrine gave me one arrow, and said “Concentrate your mind onto the gravel and the Homing Bow will know that that is what you target. But aim away from it.”
I didn’t fully understand, but I put the arrow into the string and pulled it back. I concentrated on the gravel, but aimed away from it as Herobrine instructed. I released the arrow and watched it fly off a certain distance. Suddenly, it changed course, struck the gravel in the heart of the line, and the entire line fell into the lava and burned.
I was amazed, and it was then no wonder why there was only one of this bow. It must have truly taken the finest materials to have built a weapon so powerful that it connects to the holder’s mind.
“Of course, with a unique bow comes unique arrows,” Herobrine stated. “While the Homing Bow can handle any type of arrow, the bow has its own set of special arrows, made with a diamond tip. These, my friend, are Lightning Arrows.”
“Lightning? As in, real lightning?” I asked in excitement.
“Absolutely. Not only am I the master of fire, but also the master of lightning. There are only eleven lightning arrows to the Homing Bow, and any new ones that are crafted will not be as powerful as these pure ones.”
“Wow,” I said. “This is amazing. Thank you, Lord Herobrine.”
Herobrine slightly raised his hand, as if to pause me. “One last thing,” he said. Then he raised his arms and a dark red glow swirled out of him and into my backpack, where the Soul Bond was.
I couldn’t believe what Herobrine said next. “I have added my power to your blade. When you attack, you will now unleash the Fire Aspect.”
“Whoa, you can’t be serious,” I replied.
“I am serious,” Herobrine said. “Also, did you know, if a pig is struck by lightning, it mutates into a Pigman? That is why there are so many here. Many years in the past, I was once the ruler of the Overworld. Using my lightning spells, I turned many pigs into Pigmen as my royal guards. I brought thunderstorms wherever I went, with my great supply of lightning arrows, and my weapon was the Homing Bow. I loved gold weapons and items, so I wore this golden crown and gave all of my Pigmen golden swords as their mark of royalty.
“But one day, I traveled to the Nether, and it was a remarkable place. I used the Netherrack and Glowstone to mark where I have been in the Overworld. The ruler of the End, however, disagreed with mixing otherworldly materials with the Overworld. I heeded this, and decided to make the Nether my home. However, when that fool solidified my ocean, I found his village and burnt it to the ground.”
Now it was starting to make sense. Herobrine was the one who burned the village I found below the Butte.
“However, at the thought of losing my beautiful ocean, I was driven into an uncontrollable madness, and struck endless bolts of lightning around that village, shriveling it all into a blank desert. But this further angered the ruler of the End,” he continued. “She told me that my actions were tearing the land apart. I was banished to the Nether, I could no longer make any more lightning arrows, and I was placed a curse where I cannot enter the Overworld, or I would die.”
I was surprised at his story. So it wasn’t Amnesha who destroyed the village after all. And that explains where Herobrine got his fire powers.
“My magic still roams the Overworld, and occasionally lightning might strike a pig, but this is rare. I have learned to control my magic over time, and that is how I was able to put together the brewing stand in the corner of your living room.”
“That’s a remarkable story, Lord Herobrine,” I said. “Anyway, I’m going to have some trouble getting back home… I think I got lost on the way here.”
“I can send you back through magic,” said Herobrine. “Remember, you are welcome here any time.”
And with that, I felt myself spinning again, and my vision was clouded with purple as I began warping back to the Overworld.
Then my vision was clear. I was standing behind the Nether portal that I built, and I suddenly notice Rhino sprinting at me from a short distance. I held my arms out and he jumped at me with enough force to knock me on my back. He was licking my face and shaking happily. Then he got up and started sniffing my diamond armor, his tail whipping side to side. I stroked the top of his head and stood up, saying “Hey, Rhino! I’m back!”
I went into my house and set my backpack down on the floor. I turned around and saw the new addition beside the furnace room. It was a nice corner-setup of the brewing stand, set on top of a block of Nether brick. Beside it, and at the very corner of the living room, was a large metal cauldron filled with water. Finally, next to the cauldron and at the side of my doorway was a small chest. I opened the chest, seeing a neatly-organized array of glass bottles, those red Nether plants I found at the fortress, redstone dust, Glowstone dust, and what appeared to be a large drop of water.
On my wall was a sheet of paper, telling me how to make potions, and the recipes for making them. I learned that you must fill up a glass bottle with water from a cauldron, then you must set it on the brewing stand itself and insert a Nether Wart, which are those red plants. This will create a basic potion with no effects, but it is that base for making many additional potions. I could then put in redstone dust for a potion of fire resistance, or a Ghast tear for a potion of regeneration, and such. There are many combinations of potions, such as turning them into splash potions, which, when thrown on the ground, have an area of effect.
It occurred to me that I had to go see the village and let them know of my return. Believe it or not, it wasn’t that special of a visit. I just walked to the village, then I told them that I was back. They were happy for my return, and asked many questions about the realm I visited. I told them all about my trip, which surprised them greatly and further increased their respect for me.
A few of them were a little too surprised to believe it. So I held up my Soul Bond and they could see Herobrine’s reflection in it. I even proved it to them by hitting a nearby spider, which caught on fire and burned to death. They started talking about how deserving I am to be the new chief of the village. I bid them a good night and returned home.
But before I walked into the house, I noticed a bright glow above my door, and it wasn’t just the torches. There was a huge ‘E’ on the forehead of my house, made out of that Glowstone. I suppose Herobrine put that there, but for what reason I don’t know.
Rhino’s bowl was almost out of meat. The villagers gave me some more earlier, realizing that I’m keeping Rhino as a pet. I tossed in some more meat, refilling the bowl. Then I sat down on my bed, thinking of going to sleep. But out of nowhere, I heard Herobrine’s voice.
“Listen, human. I am down here.”
I looked down and saw his reflection in the Soul Bond. Then he said “Before you go to bed, I added a few more pages to your recipe book when you were not looking.” Then his reflection disappeared.
I reached for the recipe book and flipped to the back pages. It showed things like how to compress Glowstone dust into a full piece of Glowstone, and how to make a brewing stand. There was also a guide on turning Blaze rods into Blaze powder. But on the very last page, there was a guide to making something called “Eye of Ender.” I was confused, and I looked at the recipe. It was as simple as covering an Ender Pearl in a large sprinkle of Blaze powder. The two items will magically fuse together and create the Eye of Ender.
But there was an additional paragraph on the bottom of the page. It read “Many Eyes of Ender are required to open up the End portal, which can only be found in a Stronghold. Up to twelve may be needed, but sometimes not as much. You must place the Eyes into the End portal frames deep inside the Stronghold. Once they are all in place, the space inside the frames will open up a black portal, where you will be able to access the End. However, getting into a Stronghold will be extremely difficult. Once you have an Eye of Ender, throw it into the air and it will float in the direction of a Stronghold. Do not overuse it, though; it can shatter from overuse, unlike the Ender Pearl.”
So it all made sense; I have to defeat up to twelve Endermen, which would be an arduous task, and collect as many Ender Pearls as possible. Then Herobrine will give me the Blaze powder I need to create an Eye of Ender.
I was getting thirsty and decided to drink the rest of the milk from the cooler. I opened it and drank the rest of the milk. However, as soon as I reached in to put the bucket back, I noticed a large orange clump of Blaze powder sitting where the bucket was. I took it out, replaced the bucket, and set the powder in the Epic Loots chest. I was getting increasingly happy at refilling the lava ocean, because it was certainly worth it. Now I wouldn’t have to keep going back into the Nether and fight so many wicked monsters just to get the items I needed. I barely lasted a few hours in there when I first arrived.
I liked the idea of being able to enter the End only if you had Eyes of Ender, because those who have Eyes of Ender have proven themselves more than worthy of going to the End. The Eyes draw power from two different aspects of the dimensions; the Overworld and the Nether. Plus, you need to be strong to slay an Enderman, then you have to have endurance to enter the Nether, survive the heat, defeat a Blaze, take the rod and come back. On top of that, you need to make a Nether portal, which is a task in itself. In conclusion, possessing even one Eye of Ender takes a great deal of work.
That’s when I realized; I did have the qualifications to have an Eye of Ender. I am worthy of it. But I wanted to keep my original Ender Pearl, as having the ability to teleport would come in great handy when I needed it most. Still though, I’m amazed by how far I’ve come. When I think about it, the last task I have to overcome would be hunting down the Endermen. But it would be made much simpler now that I have the one and only Homing Bow. Endermen would teleport away if I tried to shoot an arrow, but if I fired an arrow that would continue to pursue the Enderman, it would eventually be hit.
Again, this would be my last task before setting out to find the Stronghold. Then, one way or another, it would all be over. I could either earn my respect and be set free from this place, or get killed by Amnesha’s dark magic. Whichever path it may be, it won’t be that long before I reach it. Because I’ve gained a powerful ally.
The King of the Nether, Lord Herobrine himself.
....
Thumbs up for using mods!
I'm inactive, hoping to make a return one day.
I laughed at the glowstone E. Sometimes I set those up myself to freak out my friends.