The Introduction

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People say that you shouldn't dare enter into abandoned mines, it might cost your life. Yet, people still do it, such as this fellow we are going to talk about. Since they have the power to have any name or body, we will have to subside for a certain version of him. Steve Crafts was an adventurer, he liked going into forbidden places and looting them. Nothing was danger to Steve, not even the fabled EnderDragon, the mythical Wither and the mysterious Elder Guardian. He was unstoppable, everything seemed to have a reason for it being like it is to Steve. The End made fair sense in that; Endermen had to come from somewhere. The Nether was were the damned were meant to go, that was a perfectly fair reason as well. However, Kharov was a country to behold, it had many abandoned places, like the whole country didn't really care anymore. One spot, in particular, was a completely out of place sight. Karelia Mines looked normal enough, until you went in. Legend told that Karelia Mines were closed down due to the pure evil, that still resides in the mines. However, KRSP, Kharov Republic Socialist Party, states that they shut it down due to health and safety reasons. People believe that this is a cover-up for the horrific things that killed miners for years. Steve was eager to enter the mines, thus he packed his things and headed for Kharov.

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Welcome to Kharov

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Steve took many days to reach Kharov, constant islands attracted his attention, but he was pretty much in a beeline towards the country. Steve beached on the western coast, gathered his things, and set off for the coastal town of Khabarovsk. He arrived at the front western wall, to which he was greeted by a patrol officer, "Hey there, what's your business?" he spoke in a deep Russian accent and language. Steve understood and could speak many languages, even Pirate Speak and Lolcat, so he responded, in Russian,
"I'm here looking for a former Russian mine, here in Kharov, in the eastern region I believe."
"Why are you here, at Khabarovsk?" The officer questioned,
"I am looking for a place to stay, as I do not have the energy to make my own living at this point."
"Proceed, any dangerous actions out of you and you will be banned from Khabarovsk."
"I will not do any harmful actions to this town." Steve headed towards a nearby inn, opening the birch door. He was met with a warm temperature, far from the cold wind outside. Looking around; Steve saw a few normal people, a mercenary and a lady at the bar. Steve walked over to the bar, asked for bottled water, then turned to the female beside him. He introduced himself, to which she responded, "I'm Katya, I enjoy adventuring as well." At that moment, two people walked up to Steve.
"Oi, mate; you can't talk to my shela like that." One spoke, who seemed to be the eldest of the two,
"Like what? I introduced myself, what is your problem?" Steve spoke, noticing that he seemed to be Australian.
"You trying to get in there? No, she's mine, mate."
"Now get out chap, you don't want to start a fight do you?" Said the British companion of the Australian.
"Alright, I've meet some stupid people in my time, but you two need to realize how stupid you are being." Steve pulled out an iron sword. He was met with a punch in the face, although dazed he managed to kick the Aussie down. The British man pulled out a bow, aiming at Steve. Steve threw his sword at the Brit, who just missed it by a inch. An arrow struck Steve's prominent arm, making him drop the sword. He grabbed the arrow, charged at the Brit and shoved it into him. The doors burst open, with the officer stating,
"Only took you five damn minutes!"

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Mt. Kazbruk

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"You know, I've been thinking." echoed down the mountain. It came from a young male talking to a young female. Albert had been with Valeria for so long, he needed to get it out of his chest. He was close to saying it when a mysterious figure appeared. "You will come, you will stay, you will end him." It whispered repeatedly, irritating Albert, but also giving him the urge to follow it. Valeria watched in confusion, she saw Albert staring at the figure, she tried to grab Albert, but he started following the figure. Albert disappeared into the snowy wind, his shadow fading into nothing. Valeria started to go back down the mountain in shock.

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Wilderness

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The officers threw Steve out onto the hard cobblestone path. Little pain rushed through his face, but he got back up and headed for the neighboring woodlands. Steve grabbed out his axe and proceeded to cut down some pine trees, he then realized he needed some armor to keep warm, so he rid the cows of their leather and meat and crafted some leather armor. He used his pine planks to make a small, average house, while also making doors, furnaces and the like. He saw the moon rising, so he headed into his bedroom and pulled up his wool blankets over him and the mattress. His eyes closed signalling that he was asleep. Suddenly, he was awoken by a hissing sound, not a creeper, a crackling hiss. Steve's eyes widened as he realized, his house was burning.

Steve rushed out with an iron bucket, looking around for a water source. To his horror, there was none nearby, he started panicking; what was he supposed to do? Out of the corner of his eye, Steve noticed a tall, black figure by his burning wreck of a house. He suddenly felt a disturbing feeling fall upon him, like he was seeing something he shouldn't. Steve tried to shout at it, but all the came out was a gag. Everything else slowly fell dark, darker than the night and on-going fire, in the last second of his consciousness, Steve realized has was going to faint.

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Darkness & Awakening

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Albert suddenly awoke, in a dark cavern. He could hear faint drips of water down the dark tunnel north of him, or was it north? To be honest, he didn't where he was. Every move he made echoed, so standing up sounded a lot louder than he was used to. Albert felt uneasy; all he remembered was trying to confess his feelings for Valeria, but then just nothing; pure darkness. He needed to get out of this place, whatever or wherever it was. This cavern was full of sounds, from the aforementioned drips and echos, to the small wind flowing through. This meant there was either; an exit that can be easily accessed, or it was a hole up top. Thankfully, Albert's clothes were still intact, but his shoes were gone. His feet felt like they were going to freeze at any moment. He had to take desperate measures, so as soon as he saw a dead cow; he did not hesitate and ripped of the leather to form it into temporary boots. Little after he did this, he finally took notice of the cow properly. What could have done this? He thought to himself, It's been full-out cut up, I'm lucky I got enough leather. This made him dread the darkness in front of him, as he knew something was down here... or maybe some things. It sure wasn't human, by the marks left on the animal; which looked like odd claw marks; not your average wolf or bear. Despite the continuously growing fear, Albert continued down the darkness that awaited him.

A faint whisper awakened Steve, it sounded like, 'Are you okay?'. He opened his eyes to see a girl looking back at him, he suddenly jolted up. He then responded with, "Yeah, just fainted, that's all.", to which the girl responded with,
"Oh, I thought you were dead, haha,"
"Well, I could have been, glad I wasn't."
"Yeah, I saw the burnt house, I'm Pearl."
"Well I'm Steve, why did you come here?"
"Oh, well I wanted to see this... erm... mine, there are rumors about odd things down there."
"I was going to as well, do you want to come with me?"
"Sure!"
They started to walk down the path, which according to the map; was the correct way to the mines. It was pretty silent, apart from little gossip and getting to know one another. A few hours later, the sun began setting; indicating there needed to be shelter before the average night monsters came out. Luckily, Pearl had a tent pack on her; so they set it up. Steve stayed up to watch the night sky, he wondered what he had seen the night before. Was it human? If not, what was IT? He decided that he needed some shuteye, so he went inside the tent and over to his bed, or... floor of the tent. Pearl offered him the sleeping bag, but him being generous he declined. Steve rolled over and shut his eyes, hopefully no more fires would start tonight.

The sunlight rubbed against the rough fabric of the tent, giving a nice yellow tinge to the outside world. Steve was awake before Pearl, but his sleep wasn't the best. He re-imagined the fight at the bar, but this time he was about to be killed by the Aussie; then he woke up. He suddenly remembered the girl he 'tried' to talk to back at the bar, he didn't really miss her; knowing that she dated someone he hated. Steve didn't want wake Pearl up, so he took his time and slow at that, to gather his things. Then... it came back, the figure. It stood there, giving off a heavy feeling of dread. Unfortunately, this caused Steve to react loudly, waking Pearl up. "Huh?" She said through sleepy eyes, unaware of what Steve had witnessed. The being had disappeared already, so Steve had nothing to go on. "I-it's nothing." He replied slightly irritated and scared at the same time.
"You don't look that way..." Pearl remarked, which encourage Steve to admit it.
"Yeah, I'm just shaken up."
"Why?"
"I saw something outside, it's gone now, but yeah it made me feel a huge sense of dread."
Steve decided that the puzzled look on Pearl's face indicated she didn't really believe him, thus he just waved it off and they got ready to set off.

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Unidentifiable

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Albert was starting to feel a bit more at ease than prior, yet that smooth wave of calm had been sucked away; by the scurrying sound in the distance. His hair stood up as with most situations akin to this, then he started to pick up his pace; not helping his fear as he could hear the scurrying turn into large stomps coming towards him. Albert broke into a sprint, ignorant of the fact that there could be possible obstacles that would send him flying... and into the mouth of whatever that was chasing him. Unfortunately, Albert made out a dead end; so he stopped panting heavily from both fear and his escape attempt. Now I'm done for, He thought to himself, anticipating his eventual capture and death. It felt like the average hopeless prey had finally realized that the predator was guaranteed to eat them up. He looked around frantically, for a weapon; despite how useless it seemed to be. To his luck, he found an oddly shaped knife; but he wasn't taking chances. Albert stood his ground, the creature charging towards him and... Albert heard a blood curling screech emit from the creature. It fell to the ground, giving a sense of triumph to Albert; so he knelt down to take a look. He realized, the creature was always black, no matter how you lit it up. It's like the one fragment of the night that never is lit up by the sun. It was just full black, no light at all; how though? Albert was both happy and confused. This creature looked like a shadow, with a lack of depth. Albert found a tunnel he had missed, so he decided to head down there... with the knife.

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Important Info

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This was for a project, now in HIATUS, called Karelia Mines