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DISCLAIMER: This story is a piece of fiction. Any names or locations relating to real life ones are true coincidence. Minecraft belongs to Mojang.
CHAPTER 1: Twisted Transformation
I'm an ordinary kid, often dreaming of seeing the world. And my dream came true... kind of! I was relaxing in my backyard that day, and then everything flashed white. I didn't know what happened, or what triggered it... but a little while later, I heard a voice. "It is finally time."
I was confused. I wanted to yell, "Who the heck are you?!" But I couldn't. Something or someone was preventing me from doing so... Suddenly I felt so different. I felt... I don't know how I felt at that time. Eventually, the flash ended, and I opened my eyes. I felt a little... odd, so I moved my limbs a little. I didn't feel a floor. I looked down... and I was up in the air, WAY up in the air. Before I knew it, I was plummeting to my death!
As I fell from the sky, I could make out the terrain below me. It was square-shaped... or, rather, made of squares. How could such a world exist? I knew I still had some time to look around, and I looked up. I caught a glimpse of a shiny square in the sky, and white cubes lazily floating... And I was just thinking I could just fall forever until...
SLAM!!!
OW! That hurt... I must have reached the ground, but I was out cold. I could feel my back throbbing in pain, maybe it took the brunt of the impact. But I faintly heard footsteps, then a faraway voice.
"Uh... are you alright? Wake up! You can't be dead!" I tried opening my eyes, but I was still dead cold. I felt my body move a little, but not voluntarily. Whoever this guy was, he was trying to shake me awake. Eventually, I could open my eyes a little. But I couldn't believe what I saw. That cubish form... I thought it was all a legend. I knew what he was... a Minecraftian!
I then regained control of my limbs, but still I was KO'd. Then a sudden jolt of energy went through me. My head shot up, and my head crashed into his! In pain, I recoiled and completely opened my eyes. "Ow... that's one way to wake up," he said. "But wow, I can't believe you fell for that long and you didn't die! Look, you don't even have a single cut." He had a casual green shirt and blue slacks, along with some gray sneakers, blue eyes, and brown hair. But I focused on his question...
...He was right! I didn't even feel one... my hand was still on my forehead, still recovering from the head clash. Then I looked on my body... but I couldn't believe it! I still had my clothes, my white shirt, red shorts, and black jacket, but my form changed significantly. I turned into a Minecraftian. Maybe it was that flash?
I was still gawking at my transformation when the other guy stuck out his hand to pull me up. After getting up, he introduced himself. "I'm David, by the way. What's your name?" I knew what to do.
"My name's Ian. Where am I, on a side note?"
"You're in the forest. I heard you crash here and came to investigate, and I saw you and... well.. you know what." Now that I thought about it... I had seen some cubes during my fall. I looked around. A forest made of cubes. I looked up. A shiny square in the sky, that must be the sun. And the floating white cubes, those were probably clouds.
David surprised me by asking me another thing. "You have to be from somewhere, right? You couldn't possibly have been FLUNG all the way here. So, uh, where's your home?" I was confused. I just landed here, and no, I wasn't flung into the forest! I just popped into the world.
So I decided to spill the beans. "You won't believe this," I said. "But it's the truth. I might just look like an ordinary Minecraftian... but in truth... I'm a human!"
As expected, David recoiled in shock. "A... a HUMAN?! But... weren't those myths?" In frustration, I shook my head.
"Yup. In my world, your kind was a legend, too!"
"Well, I guess this makes you a new guy to the Minecraft world. Oh. Night's approaching. Come with me, you'll need to stay at our village." David turned around and went back on the path, and I followed. David pulled out a torch to light up the path. As we trekked, I heard a hissing sound. I whirled around, but nobody was there.
"David," I said, "I heard a hissing sound behind us... but nobody was there."
"Hissing sound? Oh, boy, we'd better hurry up." And so we did. We sprinted down the path. After taking another left turn, I saw a gate.
"There! The village! Get to the gate!" I rushed ahead, but then these four-legged green things jumped out at us. Instinctively, I jumped backward. "What the--?! What are those?!"
"Creepers! They'll explode if you get too close! Just hit and run, and you'll be fine. Do you have a weapon?" I searched my pockets, but all I had was a crude stick that I had somehow brought to this world.
"Dang it, this stick won't be of much use," I grumbled, but I just attacked and dodged back. The creeper made a sss sound, expanded and flashed white, but when I jumped backward, the hissing stopped, the creeper shrunk down to normal size, and it stopped flashing. Since David had a sword, he dealt with them easier, but hitting with my stick was as useful as hitting them with my fist.
Eventually, all the creepers went down, and I picked up some gray powder. David noticed my curiosity. "That's gunpowder. We can use those to craft bombs." I put it in my pocket, then we opened the gate. When we opened a gate, I saw another guy like David. He wore the same clothing, and had a similar haircut, but to me it felt like he was just a re-color of David. He wore a blue shirt, black pants, the same gray sneakers, and he was a blonde, which was pretty surprising. He had green eyes, too. When we entered the village, he greeted David.
"Hey, bro! Welcome back." I was kind of shocked to hear that-- he and David were brothers? David seemed to know what I was wondering about.
"Oh, right," he said. "This is my brother, Cory. Cory, I met this guy in the forest. His name's Ian." Then he leaned in to whisper something, and Cory's eyes widened in disbelief. Undoubtedly, he told Cory that I used to be a human. I rolled my eyes to bodily signal I wasn't too surprised.
But I looked around, and it made me think the village was divided into two halves, each having its own theme. There were good-looking houses to the left. To the right were a bunch of what I'd call "business" buildings. I saw blacksmiths, butcher shops, libraries, and even a church. I looked to the left again, and upon closer inspection, there was a path leading to a beach and a dock. Right in front of me, there was a tunnel embedded into a mountain, and I had no idea where it would lead me. And surrounding the "village" section was a bunch of fortified walls. I had to say, the guys who built this did a pretty good job.
Then David took me to the houses. "Okay, Ian, you don't have a house, right? Here are some materials-- try to build your house before the dawn so you can get some rest. However you build it is up to your creativity." He put a chest in front of me. Then he went into his house and shut the door. I had no idea how to build in this world-- so I just looked into the chest he placed.
There was some wood, logs, cobblestone, glass panes, torches, and some furniture. I wouldn't call them furniture, though-- what I meant by that means there was somehow two chests in the chest, a workbench, a furnace, and a bed. But time was running out, and I didn't have any more time to check any further into my supplies. So I took a block of cobblestone. I looked at it, then my hand dropped down as I thought of how to build, and to my surprise, placing blocks meant just swinging your arm down and then the block would just pop up there.
So, I built like mad, a phrase which means "quickly and efficiently", and the exterior was done. I put the torches inside, put the workbench in the corner, a furnace to the left of it, and the two chests to the right of it. To my surprise, putting the chests side-by-side merged them together, so I didn't have to worry about keeping both open at once. Then I hopped onto the bed and fell asleep.
The next day (I'm an early riser, by the way), I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Then I stepped outside and soaked up the sun. I've never done this before-- not even in the human world. It made me feel so alive. The air was so fresh-- just like the air in my world. I decided to relax before starting out. I headed over to an open field and lied down for a bit, looking up into the clouds.
A little while later, I heard David getting out of his house. Then he found me in the patch of grass. "Hey, Ian," he said, "Since you're new to our world, you need to know how it works. Come, I'll show you the heart of this place!" He and I left the village and entered the very same forest I crashed into yesterday. I thought we would stop at my crash site, but we walked past and kept on moving.
Eventually, we reached a clearing. And to my left was what looked like the mouth of a cave. David put a workbench down. After fiddling around with it, something that looked like a pickaxe popped up in his hand, then he gave it to me. "This is a wooden pickaxe," he said, "Which I have crafted using a crafting table. You've probably already seen this in your house." Well, that was obvious.
"So what?" I asked, brimming with doubt. "A pickaxe it may be, but I'm fairly sure it'll just snap like a twig when it hits a rock."
"That may be true in your world, but not here. It works just like a normal one-- only slow and weak. There are higher 'tiers' of tools, but we'll get into that later. For now, just mine some stone. You'll want to head into that cave."
After jumping in, I repeatedly swung my pick at the stone. To my surprise, it just left a block-shaped hole. So I simply made the assumption that building and destroying both work in blocks. After mining three blocks, I climbed out. Then David gave me some sticks. "Good," he said. "By now you've noticed how slow it is-- and you want to improve that. So to get that result, you'll need a stone pickaxe. You craft it now-- but you don't know the recipe, undoubtedly. But here it is. Just replicate it, as illustrated in the book."
He gave me a green-covered book, and I opened it up. I saw three blocks of stone filling the top row then the sticks filling in the remainder of the center column. After replicating it, a stone pickaxe appeared. "That's it," David said. "Here's a tip: In this world, if you want to craft an item, you need to fill in two criteria: One, you need the materials it includes. Two, the materials must form the shape of the item you want to craft."
"That's good advice," I said. "Now, what's my next objective?"
"Acquire hardware!"
"I'm sorry, what?"
"By that I mean get some iron ingots. To do that, you'll need some iron ore and raw coal. I'm fairly sure there's some in the cave, but it looks like you'll have to go in deeper, so I'll go with you."
We jumped into the cave. Upon closer inspection, we were in some sort of stone room. The path ahead led into the actual cave, and I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty freaked out. I mean, I've never gone spelunking before. David's torch provided some good light, so that was a plus. David wasn't showing any signs of fear, so I simply assumed he was used to this. Then I heard some groaning sounds. Unsure if it came from David, I asked, "Did you just make that sound?"
"Um, no. What are you talking about?"
"I heard some--" But I didn't get to finish my sentence. As we continued, we encountered a horde of zombies! But I knew exactly how these guys worked-- considering how I have a good knowledge on monsters, and I read up on them often. So, I just whipped out my pick and whacked one like he was a block of stone. David followed, unsheathed a sword, and hacked away, too.
As we pushed forward, the zombies retreated, but then they just suddenly fell down. I looked down... and there was a DEEP pit! More accurately, it was a ravine. Thankfully, the ravine was poking out of the surface, so there was some natural light. David pulled out something that looked like a bucket full of water, then he poured it on a block of stone. It created a "block" of water-- and just like in my world, it flowed down, but the water block didn't disappear. Then David jumped down.
I thought he'd just break his legs, but he survived. Not a single sign of damage. "Oh, yeah," he said, looking up and noticing my doubt. "Water breaks your fall here. So jump."
So I simply jumped down into the flowing water, and when I hit the water, I didn't feel any pain except for the stinging feel coursing through my body. I guess there are a few real-world rules in this one.
David facepalms as he notices my pain. "You don't fall into it, you LAND into it. Anyway, in ravines, ore deposits are pretty common here, so find some black and beige ores and you'll finally have what we're looking for. I'll head to the left, you go to the right."
As I went off, I pulled out my pickaxe and searched. Searching is not my strong suit, but thankfully I was able to find some black ore, but none of the beige stuff. I mined them-- and I realized they were coal, just like the type of coal David was talking about a few hours ago. Unsure if David had already finished, I went back to our "base". To my dismay, David hadn't returned yet.
So I just waited for him to return. I was starting to get uneasy-- it was starting to get dark, and sooner or later, the creepers or zombies or something even worse could come out and kill me. I didn't have any means of lighting the immediate area, so I made sure I was gripping my pickaxe.
Eventually, I heard footsteps, but FAST footsteps, and a LOT of them. Hearing this, I knew that David was being chased. So I jumped up and rushed to him.
"I got the iron ore," he said, out of breath, "but then these guys spawned and chased me for as long as I could remember! But now we're stuck-- we've gotta fight!" He was right. Zombies and creepers were behind him-- and there was also something that looked like skeleton archers. Instinctively, using the stone I mined out a few moments ago, I built some cover from them. I knew they were gonna fire at me sooner or later, so I needed something I could throw back. So I pulled out the stone I still had, and when I proceeded to peek from my cover and throw... All it did was just place even more. Apparently I couldn't use blocks as ammo. So I just bared my pick and rushed them.
As the skeletons fired, I strafed side to side, which really slowed my approach, but the skeletons missed really often. David seemed to notice my tactic, so he did the same thing. Then, to my dismay, as I approached, they started shooting faster! Not to mention that we had also managed to blast through the front enemy lines, but we didn't kill them, and now they were tromping at us from behind. Then David put some cover in front and behind us, so we were safe, if only for a moment.
Then David simply jumped out of his cover, and I had no idea what he was doing. But he placed blocks under him as he ran, as if to build platforms, and eventually he was higher than the skeletons. With a simple jump slash, he killed one in one hit!
Following suit, I jumped across the columns of blocks, but I am not a good parkour guy, so it was kind of slower. But when I reached the final platform, I jumped as high as I could, and jumped ONTO the other skeleton, using it as a footstool and to hurt it as well. When I landed behind it, I kicked it, knocking it down, and "mined" it, which killed it. Now we had to deal with the zombies and creepers.
David just rushed in again, and when he reached a creeper, he stopped, and when its explosion become imminent, he quickly towered up, which easily killed all the other enemies! I started to wonder if he had already fought thousands-- no, millions of battles. But by then it was already nighttime, and David had already taken me with him and was rushing back to town.
Once we reached the gate and opened it, we were already out of breath. Wordlessly, we each went to our houses and went to sleep.
CHAPTER 2: True Advancements
Next day, I was still sore from the run I had yesterday. I went back to the same field and plopped down, waiting for David or Cory to come and teach me the next step. But it was already something like 9 o' clock, and nobody had come out yet. I guess David is an early riser too, but he was probably still zonked out by the run. Everyone else was still asleep, so I knew I couldn't get any help until 10 or so.
A little later I heard a bunch of doors opening more or less at the same time. I'm guessing the villagers had already woken up. By now I wasn't so sore anymore, so my muscles were probably healing by now. Then I heard footsteps approaching me. Thinking it was David, I looked up. But it was someone different-- not David or Cory. If anything, the person who was approaching me was a girl.
She wore a teal t-shirt with two pink stripes in the middle and pink slip-ons. A string around her neck was visible, too. She had maroon hair and pink eyes, and I was kind of surprised to see that, considering how the eyes were only possible in works of fiction.
She lay down in the same field, to the right of me, and gazing into the sky as well. We were silent for a while. Wondering if she was always quiet like this, I looked at her. She looked at me, too. But she was still silent. And eventually, she spoke.
"...I'm guessing you come here as often as I do," she said wistfully.
"Well... You could say that," I said.
"By the way, I heard you're the new guy who came here a few days ago?"
"Yeah. David brought me here. And he's a cool guy, if you get to know him. But you're pretty cool, too."
She blushed. "Hehe, thanks. David's cool, too, and he's one of my friends."
"It must be great to have a friend like him. And you feel like a friend to me, too. I'm Ian."
She sat up. "It's nice to meet you, Ian. I'm Liana." And then we heard two pairs of footsteps, and they were coming our way.
Two people emerged from the corner. Cory was there, and there was another boy next to him, looking similar to Liana. He had the same shirt design, but his shirt color was green and had blue stripes. He also had bronze shoes, and he had a similar black haircut like mine. Looking into his amber eyes, I couldn't shake the feeling he and Liana were related. And then he approached us. And upon closer inspection, the same string was around his neck, too.
He stuck out a hand to pull Liana up, and I got up myself as well. Cory approached us, too. "Sis, you should probably stop wandering around on your own," he said. Wait... he was Liana's brother?
"Yeah... But, Wesley, you know that I like coming here," Liana said.
"I do know, sis. But you really worry me sometimes."
Afterward, Wesley took her home, but Cory stayed. I think I knew what he was gonna say.
"So, Cory. I'm sure I'm heading out again to learn more," I said, ready for more adventure. "Ready to head out?"
"Ian, we're not the only ones going out," Cory replied.
"Wait... 'we'?"
"Yup! David's coming with us, too. I asked him last night if I could come. And speaking of David, here he comes now." He was right. David was coming right around the corner.
"Alright, you two," he said, always keeping that brave tone. "Are you ready for more adventure?"
"Yes!" I was kind of surprised how Cory and I said that in perfect sync.
"Then let's get going," David said, and we rushed out the gate. After moving forward a little, Cory put a crafting table and a furnace down. I guess we had to craft something.
"Ian, you need to know how dangerous the world is," Cory said cautiously. "So, you're gonna need something to protect you in battle. Use the iron ore you earned yesterday to craft some armor."
"But," David said, seemingly following up, "The ore by itself isn't gonna be of much use. So, first use the coal and smelt the ore with the furnace. It's not that hard, really. Just put the coal in the bottom slot and the ore in the top."
After doing so, the furnace blazed to life and I recoiled in shock. I guess the furnace was already smelting it. And I knew I couldn't claim the ore right away, so I waited for it to finish.
Afterward, I claimed the 32 fresh iron ingots and put it into my inventory. "So," I said inquisitively, "I'll just craft the armor and tools?"
"Yes," David said. "Remember the two criteria I taught you yesterday!" And once he said that it was like I knew what to craft right away. In no time flat, the armor and tools were already done. Instinctively, I equipped the armor. But I just looked at David and Cory quizzically and saw they had no armor.
"Don't you have any armor to equip, too?" I asked.
"Of course we do," they said in unison, and quickly put on their iron sets, too. Then after picking up the crafting table and furnace, we continued to the cave. We entered the stone room, traveled the same path to the ravine, and jumped down.
Once we landed, David headed to the left. "Guys," he said, "To progress, we'll have to go through the same path I went through yesterday. It was pretty complex, so I'm sure we'll find our next objective."
"Hm," I wondered out loud. "What is our next objective, anyway?"
"To find the ultimate ore-- diamonds! The strongest tier out of all five tiers. But we'll have to go in pretty deep-- no doubt will we go through some trouble."
As we trekked, we hit a fork in the road. The left was completely dark-- but the right had torches, so I assumed David took that route yesterday, before our run. I looked around, wondering if any of the diamonds were nearby. Suddenly I dropped down a pit-- and thank goodness, there was some water there to break my fall. David and Cory jumped down too.
As we looked around, I noticed we were in another stone room. In front of us was a pretty big pool of lava, and there was a bridge of stone over it, which I assume David built to avoid falling in. With much care, I lightly tread across the bridge. And eventually we reached the other side.
Taking another turn to the left, we finally came across some blue ore, and I knew exactly what it was supposed to be. Dashing over, I gripped my pick and hacked away at the diamond deposit. Upon looking around, there were more, too. After mining them, we were about to leave the cave until we heard some hissing sounds.
Sharply turning around, there was an entire MOB of monsters. Seemingly trapped, I looked around as the mob closed in. Suddenly, I caught glimpse of an opening to another cave, and I grabbed David and Cory and RAN.
The chase was on. We ran for our lives, hoping to escape the mob. But the mob ran just as fast as us. Eventually we saw some moonlight. Knowing it was the surface, we made one final rush. Once we reached the surface, we all worked together to build a wall to close the mob. We knew we could relax-- at least, that's what we thought.
A hissing sound came from the wall, and instinctively we jumped back. The wall exploded by a few creepers, and the mob continued. We ran again-- but to our dismay, when we just ran a few blocks...
"Gah!" I exclaimed. "A sheer cliff-- what to do?!" I had no idea. Turning around, the mob was rushing fast. David and Cory followed my gaze. Suddenly David unsheathed a sword and Cory pulled out a bow.
"Isn't it obvious?!" David yelled, frustrated. "We fight! Come on, pull out your weapon!"
"Got it! Doubt we'll win, though..." And I unsheathed my sword. Just as we were about to rush in and slay them, some zombies suddenly appeared, carrying something that looked like a log-- these guys are pretty smart, I had to admit. And then the log slammed into me, which pushed me back into David and Cory, pushing us all down to our doom. I was suddenly reminded of how I arrived two days ago-- which was pretty ridiculous, how I gained so much in two short days. As we skydived, I could make out two figures. I was falling close to the ground, and any time soon I was expecting to slam onto the floor and black out-- again. I closed my eyes...
But when I hit the ground, my impact felt a lot less painful, and I could feel myself up in the air again. I fell again, and stuck the landing unharmed. Looking around, I saw Liana and Wesley. They had placed a pad of elastic blocks, which caused me to bounce up and land. Anytime soon David and Cory were bound to hit the pad as well.
Once David and Cory hit the pad and were safe as well, Liana and Wesley dashed off to the village, and we ran with them. I began to run faster when I thought the mob had managed to descend the cliff and was still running for us.
Next day I really wasn't sore compared to my run when David and I dashed from the ravine. But I did feel hunger, though, so I checked my chest. Unfortunately there wasn't really any food aside from minerals, tools, and armor. So, I went outside in hopes of getting some food.
Looking around, I saw some patches of dirt surrounded by logs, and they had trenches of water, too. There was stuff growing out of the dirt. Heading over to one, I saw that these things were actually crops-- but I had no idea what they would harvest, and besides, they weren't fully grown yet. There were more, but each time I checked, there weren't any crops ready for harvest.
Then I remembered that there were butcher shops in the business district. Dashing over there, ignoring my hunger, I entered a butcher shop.
It looked pretty typical, based on what I remember from a restaurant in the human world. There were a bunch of tables around the shop and a bunch of customers, too. Near the entrance, to the left of me, there was a counter and the shopkeeper. The line was short, thankfully, so I didn't have to wait long until I could eat up.
When it was my turn, the shopkeeper put out some cooked items-- porkchop, steak, and chicken. I picked all of them, and he asked for an emerald or two diamonds. Searching my inventory, I didn't have any-- but I remembered the diamonds I got during my mining trip. I told him to wait while I got the diamonds from my home.
I'm not gonna bore you with the details-- I managed to grab the diamonds from my chest and bring it back to the shop. To my surprise there weren't any extra customers in line-- so I was able to pay up and get the steak. All that was left was to find a table.
The tables were crowded. I couldn't find an open table. But then, in the corner of my eye, I caught David and Cory eating together at a table. Liana and Wesley were there, too. And thankfully there was one more open seat, so I decided to join them.
"Hey there," I said to my friends. "I didn't think you'd all be here in a single spot!"
"Oh, hey, Ian," Cory said. "I was just saying that, too!"
"It's nice to have us all here," Liana said.
So I sat down and ate up. I thought Liana and Wesley didn't know how our adventures went, when I first arrived at this world. I decided to recap what happened, and they listened intently. Afterward...
"That reminds me," I said. "How did you know where we were?"
Liana went silent, but Wesley spoke up. "Liana and I happened to just walk around in the woods," he said, "and then when we arrived near the cliff, I could just make out a bunch of yells. Looking up, I saw the three of you, informed my sister, and then... well, you know what."
"Just to change the subject, I'm ready to learn more-- but not about mining or crafting or anything on this 'major path'. I'm sure there's more than that."
"Well," Wesley said, "I think you mean combat or agriculture. From the looks of you, you don't really like combat. I'm rather skilled in agriculture, so I can help you if you want."
I took up his offer, and after finishing our meals, Wesley and I went outside. We stopped near my house, and Wesley put down a chest.
I opened it, and it contained some stuff from the farms I saw a few hours ago-- logs, dirt, water buckets, and some seeds. But there was also something that I didn't see-- a hoe.
"Um, okay," I said. "What now?"
"Take the logs and use it to build your frame, just like the ones over there. Don't worry about it if you don't get it first try."
I tried to replicate the frame I saw, and I guess I did it perfectly. Next thing I knew I had to do, without him explaining was to fill the frame with dirt.
"Well, putting the dirt in was obvious. Now what do I do?"
"Till the dirt with your hoe, then put some seeds in the farmland. Then let the seeds grow, and you've got some wheat. But I suggest breaking the middle column and filling that with water-- it'll grow faster that way."
After doing so, I had a feeling I was done. I thanked Wesley for his help, and went in my house to rest.
CHAPTER 3: Their Origins
A few hours later, I went out again. I checked my farm, and it looked like the wheat was already done. I plucked it out, and to my delight, I found out that I got some more seeds, so I could easily get supplies. Using the extra seeds I got, I filled the farm again.
Afterward, I went out, looking for David, and possibly Cory. Although he wasn't anywhere I thought he would be. I checked his house, then I checked the business district. Not in the library, church, butcher's shop, even the blacksmith, where I thought he would be.
But eventually I did find him. He was near the entrance of the tunnel. Ready for more, I approached him. "Okay," I said. "I've got to continue. What's the next step?"
"Well, uh... I don't really know," he said.
I couldn't believe his words. "What?! Well... is this the stopping point?" I really needed to continue on the path... perhaps the path that would take me home, which I realized yesterday.
"No, I'm sure it's not," said a familiar, girly voice, and I turned around to see Liana.
"Liana?" I asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I overheard you. You surely want to continue, and David might not know where to go next. But I do!"
"Oh, really?" David asked. "Can you take us there?"
I felt really suspicious. How did Liana know where to go? And... the string around her neck was bothering me, too. "Liana, before we go, I'll ask you something. How did you know where to go? And what's with the string around your neck?"
She kind of flinched a little. "Well," she said, "I know that my other friends are skilled in a single aspect of the Minecraft world, and I am, too. In my case, I'm well-versed in the dimensions."
"Dimensions...? You mean to tell me there's more than just this world?"
"The Overworld, you mean, and yes. Where we're going is back to the cave, and we're going to collect a special kind of block called obsidian. We need at least 10, then I'll tell you what's going to happen next."
"Hm. Okay. But... about the string...?"
"Oh, yes. I'll tell you..."
She pulls her string, revealing a pink heart-shaped gem. "This is a locket. Wesley gave this to me as a token of our relationship. I gave him a yellow, star-shaped locket. They're... really important items to us."
"Oh... so this means you're really close siblings, right?"
"Yeah... anyway, let's get going."
The three of us left the town, and went into the same cave. Going into the same route I took to get the diamonds, Liana approached the lava pool. Then she poured water on it, which turned the lava into... something.
"What is that stuff?" I asked her.
"This is the obsidian I was talking about," Liana replied. "Unfortunately, it's really strong-- and we're going to need a diamond pickaxe to break it. Do you have anything like that?"
I checked my inventory, but I only had one diamond. I realized that I spent the other two at the butcher's shop, and Cory had the other diamonds. "Uh... I've only got one. I spent the other two at the butcher's shop. David, do you have any diamonds?"
"I've only got one. And I've got two sticks, too."
"I guess this means we'll have to look for another diamond deposit."
Looking around the immediate area, there weren't any specks of diamond. So David and I went off to find another deposit. And find one we did. And there were a LOT of them.
But a scream rang out, and thinking Liana was in danger, I ran to help her. A zombie was threatening her... with... something like a shovel. For some reason, Liana wasn't lifting a finger to defend herself. So I jumped forward, and struck the zombie with my sword.
And it did not die!
"Oh..." I gulped.
The zombie pulled back and swung with its shovel, knocking me down. I tried to roll backward, but it landed another strike. One more, and that'd be it.
"Enough!" came a yell, and I looked back in time to see David charging. He struck the zombie across the face. The zombie retaliated and hit him right in the nuts. David fell down in pain. But this was my chance to counterattack!
I got up. And I didn't just do that. I pulled a leg-sweep attack before getting up, causing the zombie to trip. Then I jumped, and impaled it right in the chest.
"Thank you," gasped Liana.
"Why didn't you do anything? You could've died."
"...I don't fight. Nor do I know how to. I'm basically a... pacifist."
"Oh. Well... why?"
"I don't really like hurting others. But enough about that, let's get the obsidian."
That's when I realize we couldn't make a crafting table. I didn't have any wood. David was empty-handed on that, too. Even Liana didn't have that.
"Well," David said, "This means we have to leave the cave for a while and chop some trees down. But Liana, you come with us. We can't risk you getting attacked."
The three of us left the cave, and it was already nighttime. Were the days in this world always so quick? But there wasn't any time to think about that.
"Liana, stay close to me," I said, tugging her to my side. I went to a nearby tree and pulled my arm back to hit the tree. Suddenly...
"Sssp."
"Guuuuugh."
Clickety-clack.
"Just our luck," I snarled, not noticing this was the first time hearing these sounds, and whirled around to see a wave of mobs drawing up to us. Zombies, skeletons, spiders, even those pesky creepers.
David and I rushed forward. Liana stayed back, like the pacifist kid she is. We decided to work together and attack the same target. Simple strategy, right? We'd be able to deal with them one at a time, slowly but surely, right?
Wrong.
Not too soon we found ourselves swarmed by our target's backup. That meant ganging up on a target was out. Plus, we had Liana to think about, so we had to retreat often to check up on her, and to see if she wasn't being helplessly being attacked.
I was starting to think we wouldn't make it through this horde until I didn't see David anywhere. Turning around, he had a crafting table next to him and he was throwing two items at me. "Use these," David yelled. "Detonate the TNT with the flint and steel!"
I was gonna question him, but I realized that I had better things to do. Without a second thought, I placed the TNT on the ground and struck it with the flint and steel. I felt a tug on my armor then, and Liana yanked me back. Then she hurriedly built a wall between us and the horde.
I'm not gonna lie-- the sound of the explosion was the loudest sound I've ever heard. I covered my ears when I heard it. The explosion blasted the mobs to bits, but the wall blew up, too, and the three of us were knocked down, hurt, but not dead. By now the sun was coming up.
"How did you whip up those things so quick?" I asked David.
"Wasn't me who did that. Liana did."
I shot a look at her. She blushed.
"It was his idea," Liana said.
After that, we went back down in the cave. Then we got the diamonds we saw earlier, and used the crafting table Liana made earlier. Then I mined 10 obsidian blocks. Then we went back to the village.
"Alright, kiddo," I told Liana. "What do we do now?"
Liana shuddered a little, and took the obsidian blocks. She arranged the blocks in a vertical, upright oval. Then she took out the flint and steel she made earlier and struck the empty part. Immediately, a purple haze filled the gap.
"Woah. What the heck?!"
"This... is a Nether portal," Liana said softly. She shook again.
"And you're... scared?"
"Y... yes. The Nether is a hellish landscape, filled with fierce mobs, stronger than the ones you see here in the Overworld. But if my sources are correct, if we play our cards right, we can advance our civilization even further."
"I hope that's right," came a voice. No, it wasn't me, David, or even Liana. Turning around, we saw Cory and Wesley.
"Sis, we could be in danger," Wesley said in a concerned voice. "But you're right. We need to go further. I don't know why you kept this knowledge from me all this time, but I'm glad you knew it."
"And I knew waiting would pay off," Cory said.
"Let's go, guys," I said. "A new world awaits!" And at that, I stepped forward and into the portal.
CHAPTER 4: From the Far Reaches of Hell
When I came out the other end, all I could think was-- Wow. Liana wasn't joking. It really was a hellish landscape. There were these weird red blocks all around me, as if they were the grass and dirt back in the Overworld. Some blocks even had some white stuff embedded within them. And I couldn't see far, unlike the Overworld. There was fire everywhere, and there were a few places in which lava flowed. Looking up, I saw a yellow stone that glowed. And there were these weird... things around me.
No, I'm not talking about the red blocks, the fire, the glowy yellow stone, or even the lava. I'm talking about the mobs. Yeah, there were some mobs, but seriously, it was far weirder than the ones I've encountered thus far. When one walked up to me, I observed it. It looked like a pig, but it was standing upright, and its skin was rotting, as if it was a zombie. Even its skull and ribs were visible. It was even holding a sword. And not an ordinary sword. A golden one. But-- seriously? Why a golden sword, of all weapons? I mean, swords aren't bad, they're cool, even, but why make it out of soft, flimsy, gold?
I was still thinking about this when the gang emerged behind me. David, Cory, Wesley, and finally, Liana, who was holding Wesley's hand, maybe from fear. And the first thing they saw was this "zombie-pig" mob.
"So, Liana," I said, motioning to her. "You know this... thing, right?"
"U-Uh," she stuttered. "Yeah. That's a zombie pigman. It's a zombie, and a pig at the same time. It's normally harmless, but if you hit it, you'll anger it, and it'll attack. And even worse, it'll call for backup."
"Wow. Looks like we better avoid this thing." I did so by walking away with everyone following me. "What are we looking for?"
"A Nether fortress. And some Nether quartz. The Nether quartz is easy enough to find, but we'll need some luck for the for--"
But she didn't even get to finish her sentence. Halfway, we heard some weird voice. I looked behind me, but it looked like none of the guys said anything. But I did see something else. I thought I could see some cube floating in the distance.
Recoiling in shock, I pointed at the silhouette. Everyone turned, but it was gone. Everyone but Liana looked at me again, and shot me looks. The voice filled my ears again, this time coming from my right. I looked... and I did see a cube floating at us. But it also had something like tentacles under its body. I pointed again, and they looked just in time for the thing to open its mouth and shoot a fireball. Everyone flinched and yelled. Even David didn't do anything. But not me!
I rushed forward, quick as light, and spread open my arms. Now, I've been nearly blown up before back when David, Liana and I were in the woods. But unbeknownst to me, that was just a taste. I've never experienced the whole thing.
When the fireball hit, I was knocked off my feet. My ears were ringing, and a wave of pain crashed over my body. I thought I could also feel my bones breaking, and my flesh tearing. I looked up just in time to see another fireball emerging from the horizon, causing the whole chorus of hell to repeat. There'd be no way I'd be able to fight this thing-- I didn't have any ranged weapon. One more fireball, and that would be it. And that selfsame fireball emerged from the horizon once more-- albeit far away, giving me enough time to get up. And I did.
Purely on instinct, I unsheathed my sword and held it up. As soon as the fireball connected, the projectile was reflected! But it missed the target by a thin margin. At least I had a way to fight this thing now.
One more fireball, and I pulled back to strike. The sword hit the fireball, and this time the fireball connected, surprisingly killing it in one hit. I saw it drop something, but its loot fell and disappeared. I looked down and I saw an ocean of lava. "What was that?!"
"That... That was a ghast," Liana replied. "Those things shoot fireballs, and you can reflect them, just like you did. And--" at this I staggered in pain. "--you're hurt! Are you alright?"
"The pain won't go away."
"You might want to eat," Wesley said. "If you're full enough, your body will hyper-heal. Did you bring anything?"
I checked my inventory, and I didn't have anything except for wheat. I pulled it out and showed it to him.
"You can use that to make bread. I have a crafting table. Give me your wheat."
After I gave the wheat to him, he placed his crafting table, and arranged the wheat in a horizontal row. It made a loaf of bread. He gave it to me, and I ate it. True to his word, my body began to heal. Really quickly, at that.
"Well now," I said. "This might turn out to be helpful."
"That's an understatement," Wesley said. "Sis. What do we do?"
"We'll mine that quartz ore," she said, and pointed to the blocks I stated earlier, with white stuff embedded within them. She took out a pickaxe and started mining it. As soon as the block broke, I saw some white chunks fall out. "This is the first step towards modernizing our village. Also, we'll need to get more resources at a Nether fortress. Let's look for one."
And thus, we set out on our first, large-scale expedition.
But lemme tell you, finding a Nether fortress was easier said than done. I had no idea where to go, especially considering that we were just on a floating island, and under said island was just a pool of molten earth. Liana told me the first step to finding a Nether fortress was finding "Nether bricks"-- which I had no idea what she was talking about. Supposedly it was like bricks, but darker and more maroon. And apparently they were the main thing of a fortress.
But we weren't backed into a corner just yet. Cory knew some technique called "bridging", in which he walked backwards and placed blocks as he walked so he wouldn't fall. After a while, I could feel my patience wearing thin, but Cory told me to wait a little longer. He knew he'd find some more land or even a fortress, the very thing what we were looking for.
Later, WAY later, at that, we finally found more land. And it wasn't an island this time. It was more like a continent. But there was no fortress to be seen.
"You serious, kid?" I said. "All that time bridging over this burning ocean, and not even a hint of what we need."
"Keep your cool," Liana replied. "Fortresses aren't that common to begin with... but not rare, either. There might be one in the area."
But I had another problem to deal with. "I'm hungry," I complained. "That loaf of bread wasn't enough. There might be food here, but I doubt it." I analyzed my surroundings, hoping to see anything remotely edible. But it was hopeless. All I saw around me were blocks, and fire. But despite my limited vision, I thought I could see a silhouette.
Inching closer, I saw it was another zombie pigman. "You said these were pigmen, kiddo. And if they're like anything in my world or the Overworld, it should be good enough to eat! I mean, it's a pig, right?"
Without a second thought, I unsheathed my sword and charged. Liana yelled something like "Wait!" But I was too hungry to care. As soon as I ran up to the pigman, I struck it with a powerful blow.
Now let me just say here that I wish I wasn't all that hungry to begin with. At first, my memories were clouded. Only when I struck my quarry did I suddenly remember what pigmen were capable of.
When the blade hit, the pigman recoiled and let out some sort of shriek. And more pigmen appeared, each holding a golden sword. Liana wasn't joking when she said that pigmen could call for backup. And only then did they charge.
At first they tried a frontal assault, but then they quickly surrounded me. I could have called for help, but they struck me so many times that my cries for help turned into yells of pain. But it turned out I didn't have to.
As I was being ganged up on, I heard the sss of a fuse, and then a big explosion. Wesley had thrown TNT at the pigman horde to help. Cory provided support fire with his bow, and David just pulled a full-on, head-first assault. Liana pulled me back, and gave me a potion to drink. As I drank it, I could feel my wounds heal.
Now that I was able to fight again, I charged just like David did and helped him. I don't remember how we killed them, but all I remember is that we won, and the horde went down.
But to my dismay, they didn't drop anything that looked edible. Just something that looked like zombie flesh, and... gold nuggets? No, I don't mean nuggets like the edible thing. Nuggets made of literal gold.
I guess we could've used the currency. I grabbed the nuggets and split it between the five of us. That left the zombie flesh, which I picked up and winced at the utter grossness.
"As disgusting as it may be," Wesley piped up, "It's actually edible. Go on, try it."
I decided to take his word for it. I took a chunk and began munching down on it. But after I ate the last bite, it gave me something that might have been the worst aftertaste ever.
It did fill me a little, but it was so bad that in the end, it made me even hungrier. Without thinking, I ate all the chunks of rotten flesh I got from the battle. Luckily, it didn't get worse every time, but it felt longer. After it was all gone, I had no idea what to do. I was full, but all that food was gonna evaporate. I was still thinking when Wesley grabbed me and forced me to drink something. And suddenly, I was fine.
"What did you give me?! Not that I'm ungrateful, though. Thanks."
"I made you drink milk. If there's a change in your normal body functions, milk will wash it all away. You can think of it like an effect purger. It gets rid of bad stuff, but good stuff too, so if you've got any good effects, you might want to think twice before drinking it."
"Well, knowledge is power, after all. But do we have what we're really looking for? We need a fortress."
"There's one right there," Liana said, pointing to our left. And sure enough, there was a big column of nether bricks, what all Nether fortresses were made of.
CHAPTER 5: The Heart of a Hero
It didn't take us long to get inside the fortress. All we had to do was build a staircase all the way to the top. And before I even knew it, we were inside.
The first thing I saw at the start of the fortress was a staircase, with some brown blocks and some... red crops growing out of it? I wondered what it was, but as I was still thinking, Liana went over to the crops and plucked them out. And out of nowhere, she let out a scream.
Running over to her, the brown blocks had these... faces engraved in them. "Who did this?" I asked. "And how did those crops grow in the blocks?"
"I don't know who, exactly," Liana murmured. "But this stuff... it's soul sand. It looks every bit as scary as I thought it was. Supposedly it contains the souls of many deceased people."
"But... I didn't see any spirits around. How did those souls get in that... stuff?"
"Those souls came here to the Nether after their bodies died. It seems that the souls are impossible to see. And all those souls are destined to be trapped-- forever-- in this sand. I think that's why it's called 'soul sand'. And it gets even scarier when you step on them. The souls will grab at your feet, slowing your movement to a crawl. It could be used as a trap of sorts. But otherwise, it's not lethal."
"Wow. That's really creepy."
"I know, right? But we need this stuff. And I don't mean the soul sand. These are Nether warts." She held out some red seed-like things.
"Why?"
"They're essential for brewing potions like the one I gave you earlier. But if we want any chance of brewing potions, then we're going to need a brewing stand. I plucked them out of the soul sand. So we're going to need a lot of this."
So we helped her harvest the rest of the Nether warts. And after that, we moved up the stairs. It appeared that we were on a roof-- no, some sort of walkway, like the ones you see in castles. Except there weren't any archer holes or whatever. And after a while, we reached an intersection.
"So," I asked, "Where do we go next?"
"I don't know," Liana said. "We should look for a blaze spawner."
"Oh, boy. I've heard of those," David says. "They're basically like fire elementals, and they shoot fireballs at you."
"Right, David," Liana replied. "They're usually in a boxed-in area, so we should look for something like--"
But a fireball interrupted her. No, I don't mean a ghast fireball. Three fireballs flew by us, and we all took cover. Peeking out of my cover, there was one of the blazes that Liana was talking about.
"Well, speak of the devil," David hissed. "Guess we'll have to deal with this thing." David charged and struck the blaze. But as soon as he did, it flew up. David's sword was useless.
"I've got you," Cory yelled. He fired arrows at the blaze, each shot hitting perfectly. And soon the blaze went down. But just like my first ghast encounter, its loot fell. When I looked into where it would have landed, all I saw was lava. That meant whatever it dropped was gone.
"We've just gotta keep trying," I said.
"Yeah," Wesley said. "Gotta keep trying at staying alive! I could use some help!" When I turned, Wesley was hacking at a skeleton, but it was black, taller, and instead of a bow, it had a stone sword. The skeleton landed a hit on Wesley, knocking him down. Snarling, I charged and struck the skeleton, pushing it into the lava.
"That was a close call."
"Yeah, no kidding," I gasped.
After those battles, we continued our search for a blaze spawner. It felt like we were walking forever. We walked across innumerable walkways, some of which were dug into the hellish landscape. We had to decide which way to go whenever we reached a crosswalk, and even after all of those troubles, we still found nothing. At another crosswalk, we took a break.
"Geez," I gasped. "Do these blaze spawners even exist?"
"Keep your cool, dude," Cory wheezed. "Of course they do."
"He's right," Liana said. "They do exist, but I never thought they'd be this rare."
At this, I couldn't believe what she was saying. "Wait, are you implying that they're almost impossible to find?!"
"No. The amount of spawners within a fortress are completely different between every single one of them. We probably came across a fortress that doesn't have many spawners."
"Then... that means we gotta look in every corner. We should probably split up. We'll have more chance that way. We should meet up here again. If we find anything, we gotta tell, alright?"
"I guess I'll go by myself," David said. "Cory and I often work together, but I think this time we should split up."
"Agreed, bro," nodded Cory. "We'll cover more ground that way."
"What about those two?" David pointed to Liana and Wesley. For a moment, they both said nothing. In fact, nobody said anything until I piped up.
"Well... Liana, Wesley and I will all go together. After all, Wesley can fight and protect Liana, but I doubt he'd be able to hold for long."
"I guess that's for the best," Cory said. "Alright, no more wasting time. Let's get going."
David and Cory ran in opposite directions, and I took Liana and Wesley with me on the path ahead. I just kept running and running and running and running and... well, you get the point. My path was so long that it felt like I was running forever. Maybe Liana even thought this was ludicrously long for a fortress. I had no idea how long I'd last, because I could feel slight hunger kicking in.
I then slowed to a walk, and eventually I stopped again.
"Ughhhhh. This path probably doesn't even have a spawner to begin with. I think... I should go back..."
But just when I turned and slowly started to slump back, I felt something grab my hand. I looked back, and Liana was restraining me.
"...What? Is something wrong, kid?"
"I'm not giving up," Liana whispered. "Not after I got this far with your help. So don't give up on me, either, okay?" She seemed serious, yet she had the same gentle smile on her face. I got the feeling that she was a very determined kid. Wesley also stood behind her, smiling. It looked like he was proud of his little sister.
"Tell you what. David's actually a hero to our village. And to me, you seem like you look up to him as your role model. If you wanna be a hero like him, you must never give up, no matter what!"
Truth be told, I never really thought of David like that. But something told me that Liana was speaking the truth. I couldn't help but chuckle in agreement. So I picked her up and looked into her eyes.
"Yeah. You're right. I shouldn't ever give up. Otherwise, I'd be nothing more than a commoner."
Liana nodded, then I put her down. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wesley flash a wink and a thumbs-up. Afterward, we continued running on the path. For some reason up until this point the path was just a REALLY long straightway until we came across a curve to the left. Then we came across another room. A staircase was barely visible, and the three of us climbed it.
(More coming soon)
CHAPTER 1: Twisted Transformation
I'm an ordinary kid, often dreaming of seeing the world. And my dream came true... kind of! I was relaxing in my backyard that day, and then everything flashed white. I didn't know what happened, or what triggered it... but a little while later, I heard a voice. "It is finally time."
I was confused. I wanted to yell, "Who the heck are you?!" But I couldn't. Something or someone was preventing me from doing so... Suddenly I felt so different. I felt... I don't know how I felt at that time. Eventually, the flash ended, and I opened my eyes. I felt a little... odd, so I moved my limbs a little. I didn't feel a floor. I looked down... and I was up in the air, WAY up in the air. Before I knew it, I was plummeting to my death!
As I fell from the sky, I could make out the terrain below me. It was square-shaped... or, rather, made of squares. How could such a world exist? I knew I still had some time to look around, and I looked up. I caught a glimpse of a shiny square in the sky, and white cubes lazily floating... And I was just thinking I could just fall forever until...
SLAM!!!
OW! That hurt... I must have reached the ground, but I was out cold. I could feel my back throbbing in pain, maybe it took the brunt of the impact. But I faintly heard footsteps, then a faraway voice.
"Uh... are you alright? Wake up! You can't be dead!" I tried opening my eyes, but I was still dead cold. I felt my body move a little, but not voluntarily. Whoever this guy was, he was trying to shake me awake. Eventually, I could open my eyes a little. But I couldn't believe what I saw. That cubish form... I thought it was all a legend. I knew what he was... a Minecraftian!
I then regained control of my limbs, but still I was KO'd. Then a sudden jolt of energy went through me. My head shot up, and my head crashed into his! In pain, I recoiled and completely opened my eyes. "Ow... that's one way to wake up," he said. "But wow, I can't believe you fell for that long and you didn't die! Look, you don't even have a single cut." He had a casual green shirt and blue slacks, along with some gray sneakers, blue eyes, and brown hair. But I focused on his question...
...He was right! I didn't even feel one... my hand was still on my forehead, still recovering from the head clash. Then I looked on my body... but I couldn't believe it! I still had my clothes, my white shirt, red shorts, and black jacket, but my form changed significantly. I turned into a Minecraftian. Maybe it was that flash?
I was still gawking at my transformation when the other guy stuck out his hand to pull me up. After getting up, he introduced himself. "I'm David, by the way. What's your name?" I knew what to do.
"My name's Ian. Where am I, on a side note?"
"You're in the forest. I heard you crash here and came to investigate, and I saw you and... well.. you know what." Now that I thought about it... I had seen some cubes during my fall. I looked around. A forest made of cubes. I looked up. A shiny square in the sky, that must be the sun. And the floating white cubes, those were probably clouds.
David surprised me by asking me another thing. "You have to be from somewhere, right? You couldn't possibly have been FLUNG all the way here. So, uh, where's your home?" I was confused. I just landed here, and no, I wasn't flung into the forest! I just popped into the world.
So I decided to spill the beans. "You won't believe this," I said. "But it's the truth. I might just look like an ordinary Minecraftian... but in truth... I'm a human!"
As expected, David recoiled in shock. "A... a HUMAN?! But... weren't those myths?" In frustration, I shook my head.
"Yup. In my world, your kind was a legend, too!"
"Well, I guess this makes you a new guy to the Minecraft world. Oh. Night's approaching. Come with me, you'll need to stay at our village." David turned around and went back on the path, and I followed. David pulled out a torch to light up the path. As we trekked, I heard a hissing sound. I whirled around, but nobody was there.
"David," I said, "I heard a hissing sound behind us... but nobody was there."
"Hissing sound? Oh, boy, we'd better hurry up." And so we did. We sprinted down the path. After taking another left turn, I saw a gate.
"There! The village! Get to the gate!" I rushed ahead, but then these four-legged green things jumped out at us. Instinctively, I jumped backward. "What the--?! What are those?!"
"Creepers! They'll explode if you get too close! Just hit and run, and you'll be fine. Do you have a weapon?" I searched my pockets, but all I had was a crude stick that I had somehow brought to this world.
"Dang it, this stick won't be of much use," I grumbled, but I just attacked and dodged back. The creeper made a sss sound, expanded and flashed white, but when I jumped backward, the hissing stopped, the creeper shrunk down to normal size, and it stopped flashing. Since David had a sword, he dealt with them easier, but hitting with my stick was as useful as hitting them with my fist.
Eventually, all the creepers went down, and I picked up some gray powder. David noticed my curiosity. "That's gunpowder. We can use those to craft bombs." I put it in my pocket, then we opened the gate. When we opened a gate, I saw another guy like David. He wore the same clothing, and had a similar haircut, but to me it felt like he was just a re-color of David. He wore a blue shirt, black pants, the same gray sneakers, and he was a blonde, which was pretty surprising. He had green eyes, too. When we entered the village, he greeted David.
"Hey, bro! Welcome back." I was kind of shocked to hear that-- he and David were brothers? David seemed to know what I was wondering about.
"Oh, right," he said. "This is my brother, Cory. Cory, I met this guy in the forest. His name's Ian." Then he leaned in to whisper something, and Cory's eyes widened in disbelief. Undoubtedly, he told Cory that I used to be a human. I rolled my eyes to bodily signal I wasn't too surprised.
But I looked around, and it made me think the village was divided into two halves, each having its own theme. There were good-looking houses to the left. To the right were a bunch of what I'd call "business" buildings. I saw blacksmiths, butcher shops, libraries, and even a church. I looked to the left again, and upon closer inspection, there was a path leading to a beach and a dock. Right in front of me, there was a tunnel embedded into a mountain, and I had no idea where it would lead me. And surrounding the "village" section was a bunch of fortified walls. I had to say, the guys who built this did a pretty good job.
Then David took me to the houses. "Okay, Ian, you don't have a house, right? Here are some materials-- try to build your house before the dawn so you can get some rest. However you build it is up to your creativity." He put a chest in front of me. Then he went into his house and shut the door. I had no idea how to build in this world-- so I just looked into the chest he placed.
There was some wood, logs, cobblestone, glass panes, torches, and some furniture. I wouldn't call them furniture, though-- what I meant by that means there was somehow two chests in the chest, a workbench, a furnace, and a bed. But time was running out, and I didn't have any more time to check any further into my supplies. So I took a block of cobblestone. I looked at it, then my hand dropped down as I thought of how to build, and to my surprise, placing blocks meant just swinging your arm down and then the block would just pop up there.
So, I built like mad, a phrase which means "quickly and efficiently", and the exterior was done. I put the torches inside, put the workbench in the corner, a furnace to the left of it, and the two chests to the right of it. To my surprise, putting the chests side-by-side merged them together, so I didn't have to worry about keeping both open at once. Then I hopped onto the bed and fell asleep.
The next day (I'm an early riser, by the way), I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Then I stepped outside and soaked up the sun. I've never done this before-- not even in the human world. It made me feel so alive. The air was so fresh-- just like the air in my world. I decided to relax before starting out. I headed over to an open field and lied down for a bit, looking up into the clouds.
A little while later, I heard David getting out of his house. Then he found me in the patch of grass. "Hey, Ian," he said, "Since you're new to our world, you need to know how it works. Come, I'll show you the heart of this place!" He and I left the village and entered the very same forest I crashed into yesterday. I thought we would stop at my crash site, but we walked past and kept on moving.
Eventually, we reached a clearing. And to my left was what looked like the mouth of a cave. David put a workbench down. After fiddling around with it, something that looked like a pickaxe popped up in his hand, then he gave it to me. "This is a wooden pickaxe," he said, "Which I have crafted using a crafting table. You've probably already seen this in your house." Well, that was obvious.
"So what?" I asked, brimming with doubt. "A pickaxe it may be, but I'm fairly sure it'll just snap like a twig when it hits a rock."
"That may be true in your world, but not here. It works just like a normal one-- only slow and weak. There are higher 'tiers' of tools, but we'll get into that later. For now, just mine some stone. You'll want to head into that cave."
After jumping in, I repeatedly swung my pick at the stone. To my surprise, it just left a block-shaped hole. So I simply made the assumption that building and destroying both work in blocks. After mining three blocks, I climbed out. Then David gave me some sticks. "Good," he said. "By now you've noticed how slow it is-- and you want to improve that. So to get that result, you'll need a stone pickaxe. You craft it now-- but you don't know the recipe, undoubtedly. But here it is. Just replicate it, as illustrated in the book."
He gave me a green-covered book, and I opened it up. I saw three blocks of stone filling the top row then the sticks filling in the remainder of the center column. After replicating it, a stone pickaxe appeared. "That's it," David said. "Here's a tip: In this world, if you want to craft an item, you need to fill in two criteria: One, you need the materials it includes. Two, the materials must form the shape of the item you want to craft."
"That's good advice," I said. "Now, what's my next objective?"
"Acquire hardware!"
"I'm sorry, what?"
"By that I mean get some iron ingots. To do that, you'll need some iron ore and raw coal. I'm fairly sure there's some in the cave, but it looks like you'll have to go in deeper, so I'll go with you."
We jumped into the cave. Upon closer inspection, we were in some sort of stone room. The path ahead led into the actual cave, and I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty freaked out. I mean, I've never gone spelunking before. David's torch provided some good light, so that was a plus. David wasn't showing any signs of fear, so I simply assumed he was used to this. Then I heard some groaning sounds. Unsure if it came from David, I asked, "Did you just make that sound?"
"Um, no. What are you talking about?"
"I heard some--" But I didn't get to finish my sentence. As we continued, we encountered a horde of zombies! But I knew exactly how these guys worked-- considering how I have a good knowledge on monsters, and I read up on them often. So, I just whipped out my pick and whacked one like he was a block of stone. David followed, unsheathed a sword, and hacked away, too.
As we pushed forward, the zombies retreated, but then they just suddenly fell down. I looked down... and there was a DEEP pit! More accurately, it was a ravine. Thankfully, the ravine was poking out of the surface, so there was some natural light. David pulled out something that looked like a bucket full of water, then he poured it on a block of stone. It created a "block" of water-- and just like in my world, it flowed down, but the water block didn't disappear. Then David jumped down.
I thought he'd just break his legs, but he survived. Not a single sign of damage. "Oh, yeah," he said, looking up and noticing my doubt. "Water breaks your fall here. So jump."
So I simply jumped down into the flowing water, and when I hit the water, I didn't feel any pain except for the stinging feel coursing through my body. I guess there are a few real-world rules in this one.
David facepalms as he notices my pain. "You don't fall into it, you LAND into it. Anyway, in ravines, ore deposits are pretty common here, so find some black and beige ores and you'll finally have what we're looking for. I'll head to the left, you go to the right."
As I went off, I pulled out my pickaxe and searched. Searching is not my strong suit, but thankfully I was able to find some black ore, but none of the beige stuff. I mined them-- and I realized they were coal, just like the type of coal David was talking about a few hours ago. Unsure if David had already finished, I went back to our "base". To my dismay, David hadn't returned yet.
So I just waited for him to return. I was starting to get uneasy-- it was starting to get dark, and sooner or later, the creepers or zombies or something even worse could come out and kill me. I didn't have any means of lighting the immediate area, so I made sure I was gripping my pickaxe.
Eventually, I heard footsteps, but FAST footsteps, and a LOT of them. Hearing this, I knew that David was being chased. So I jumped up and rushed to him.
"I got the iron ore," he said, out of breath, "but then these guys spawned and chased me for as long as I could remember! But now we're stuck-- we've gotta fight!" He was right. Zombies and creepers were behind him-- and there was also something that looked like skeleton archers. Instinctively, using the stone I mined out a few moments ago, I built some cover from them. I knew they were gonna fire at me sooner or later, so I needed something I could throw back. So I pulled out the stone I still had, and when I proceeded to peek from my cover and throw... All it did was just place even more. Apparently I couldn't use blocks as ammo. So I just bared my pick and rushed them.
As the skeletons fired, I strafed side to side, which really slowed my approach, but the skeletons missed really often. David seemed to notice my tactic, so he did the same thing. Then, to my dismay, as I approached, they started shooting faster! Not to mention that we had also managed to blast through the front enemy lines, but we didn't kill them, and now they were tromping at us from behind. Then David put some cover in front and behind us, so we were safe, if only for a moment.
Then David simply jumped out of his cover, and I had no idea what he was doing. But he placed blocks under him as he ran, as if to build platforms, and eventually he was higher than the skeletons. With a simple jump slash, he killed one in one hit!
Following suit, I jumped across the columns of blocks, but I am not a good parkour guy, so it was kind of slower. But when I reached the final platform, I jumped as high as I could, and jumped ONTO the other skeleton, using it as a footstool and to hurt it as well. When I landed behind it, I kicked it, knocking it down, and "mined" it, which killed it. Now we had to deal with the zombies and creepers.
David just rushed in again, and when he reached a creeper, he stopped, and when its explosion become imminent, he quickly towered up, which easily killed all the other enemies! I started to wonder if he had already fought thousands-- no, millions of battles. But by then it was already nighttime, and David had already taken me with him and was rushing back to town.
Once we reached the gate and opened it, we were already out of breath. Wordlessly, we each went to our houses and went to sleep.
CHAPTER 2: True Advancements
Next day, I was still sore from the run I had yesterday. I went back to the same field and plopped down, waiting for David or Cory to come and teach me the next step. But it was already something like 9 o' clock, and nobody had come out yet. I guess David is an early riser too, but he was probably still zonked out by the run. Everyone else was still asleep, so I knew I couldn't get any help until 10 or so.
A little later I heard a bunch of doors opening more or less at the same time. I'm guessing the villagers had already woken up. By now I wasn't so sore anymore, so my muscles were probably healing by now. Then I heard footsteps approaching me. Thinking it was David, I looked up. But it was someone different-- not David or Cory. If anything, the person who was approaching me was a girl.
She wore a teal t-shirt with two pink stripes in the middle and pink slip-ons. A string around her neck was visible, too. She had maroon hair and pink eyes, and I was kind of surprised to see that, considering how the eyes were only possible in works of fiction.
She lay down in the same field, to the right of me, and gazing into the sky as well. We were silent for a while. Wondering if she was always quiet like this, I looked at her. She looked at me, too. But she was still silent. And eventually, she spoke.
"...I'm guessing you come here as often as I do," she said wistfully.
"Well... You could say that," I said.
"By the way, I heard you're the new guy who came here a few days ago?"
"Yeah. David brought me here. And he's a cool guy, if you get to know him. But you're pretty cool, too."
She blushed. "Hehe, thanks. David's cool, too, and he's one of my friends."
"It must be great to have a friend like him. And you feel like a friend to me, too. I'm Ian."
She sat up. "It's nice to meet you, Ian. I'm Liana." And then we heard two pairs of footsteps, and they were coming our way.
Two people emerged from the corner. Cory was there, and there was another boy next to him, looking similar to Liana. He had the same shirt design, but his shirt color was green and had blue stripes. He also had bronze shoes, and he had a similar black haircut like mine. Looking into his amber eyes, I couldn't shake the feeling he and Liana were related. And then he approached us. And upon closer inspection, the same string was around his neck, too.
He stuck out a hand to pull Liana up, and I got up myself as well. Cory approached us, too. "Sis, you should probably stop wandering around on your own," he said. Wait... he was Liana's brother?
"Yeah... But, Wesley, you know that I like coming here," Liana said.
"I do know, sis. But you really worry me sometimes."
Afterward, Wesley took her home, but Cory stayed. I think I knew what he was gonna say.
"So, Cory. I'm sure I'm heading out again to learn more," I said, ready for more adventure. "Ready to head out?"
"Ian, we're not the only ones going out," Cory replied.
"Wait... 'we'?"
"Yup! David's coming with us, too. I asked him last night if I could come. And speaking of David, here he comes now." He was right. David was coming right around the corner.
"Alright, you two," he said, always keeping that brave tone. "Are you ready for more adventure?"
"Yes!" I was kind of surprised how Cory and I said that in perfect sync.
"Then let's get going," David said, and we rushed out the gate. After moving forward a little, Cory put a crafting table and a furnace down. I guess we had to craft something.
"Ian, you need to know how dangerous the world is," Cory said cautiously. "So, you're gonna need something to protect you in battle. Use the iron ore you earned yesterday to craft some armor."
"But," David said, seemingly following up, "The ore by itself isn't gonna be of much use. So, first use the coal and smelt the ore with the furnace. It's not that hard, really. Just put the coal in the bottom slot and the ore in the top."
After doing so, the furnace blazed to life and I recoiled in shock. I guess the furnace was already smelting it. And I knew I couldn't claim the ore right away, so I waited for it to finish.
Afterward, I claimed the 32 fresh iron ingots and put it into my inventory. "So," I said inquisitively, "I'll just craft the armor and tools?"
"Yes," David said. "Remember the two criteria I taught you yesterday!" And once he said that it was like I knew what to craft right away. In no time flat, the armor and tools were already done. Instinctively, I equipped the armor. But I just looked at David and Cory quizzically and saw they had no armor.
"Don't you have any armor to equip, too?" I asked.
"Of course we do," they said in unison, and quickly put on their iron sets, too. Then after picking up the crafting table and furnace, we continued to the cave. We entered the stone room, traveled the same path to the ravine, and jumped down.
Once we landed, David headed to the left. "Guys," he said, "To progress, we'll have to go through the same path I went through yesterday. It was pretty complex, so I'm sure we'll find our next objective."
"Hm," I wondered out loud. "What is our next objective, anyway?"
"To find the ultimate ore-- diamonds! The strongest tier out of all five tiers. But we'll have to go in pretty deep-- no doubt will we go through some trouble."
As we trekked, we hit a fork in the road. The left was completely dark-- but the right had torches, so I assumed David took that route yesterday, before our run. I looked around, wondering if any of the diamonds were nearby. Suddenly I dropped down a pit-- and thank goodness, there was some water there to break my fall. David and Cory jumped down too.
As we looked around, I noticed we were in another stone room. In front of us was a pretty big pool of lava, and there was a bridge of stone over it, which I assume David built to avoid falling in. With much care, I lightly tread across the bridge. And eventually we reached the other side.
Taking another turn to the left, we finally came across some blue ore, and I knew exactly what it was supposed to be. Dashing over, I gripped my pick and hacked away at the diamond deposit. Upon looking around, there were more, too. After mining them, we were about to leave the cave until we heard some hissing sounds.
Sharply turning around, there was an entire MOB of monsters. Seemingly trapped, I looked around as the mob closed in. Suddenly, I caught glimpse of an opening to another cave, and I grabbed David and Cory and RAN.
The chase was on. We ran for our lives, hoping to escape the mob. But the mob ran just as fast as us. Eventually we saw some moonlight. Knowing it was the surface, we made one final rush. Once we reached the surface, we all worked together to build a wall to close the mob. We knew we could relax-- at least, that's what we thought.
A hissing sound came from the wall, and instinctively we jumped back. The wall exploded by a few creepers, and the mob continued. We ran again-- but to our dismay, when we just ran a few blocks...
"Gah!" I exclaimed. "A sheer cliff-- what to do?!" I had no idea. Turning around, the mob was rushing fast. David and Cory followed my gaze. Suddenly David unsheathed a sword and Cory pulled out a bow.
"Isn't it obvious?!" David yelled, frustrated. "We fight! Come on, pull out your weapon!"
"Got it! Doubt we'll win, though..." And I unsheathed my sword. Just as we were about to rush in and slay them, some zombies suddenly appeared, carrying something that looked like a log-- these guys are pretty smart, I had to admit. And then the log slammed into me, which pushed me back into David and Cory, pushing us all down to our doom. I was suddenly reminded of how I arrived two days ago-- which was pretty ridiculous, how I gained so much in two short days. As we skydived, I could make out two figures. I was falling close to the ground, and any time soon I was expecting to slam onto the floor and black out-- again. I closed my eyes...
But when I hit the ground, my impact felt a lot less painful, and I could feel myself up in the air again. I fell again, and stuck the landing unharmed. Looking around, I saw Liana and Wesley. They had placed a pad of elastic blocks, which caused me to bounce up and land. Anytime soon David and Cory were bound to hit the pad as well.
Once David and Cory hit the pad and were safe as well, Liana and Wesley dashed off to the village, and we ran with them. I began to run faster when I thought the mob had managed to descend the cliff and was still running for us.
Next day I really wasn't sore compared to my run when David and I dashed from the ravine. But I did feel hunger, though, so I checked my chest. Unfortunately there wasn't really any food aside from minerals, tools, and armor. So, I went outside in hopes of getting some food.
Looking around, I saw some patches of dirt surrounded by logs, and they had trenches of water, too. There was stuff growing out of the dirt. Heading over to one, I saw that these things were actually crops-- but I had no idea what they would harvest, and besides, they weren't fully grown yet. There were more, but each time I checked, there weren't any crops ready for harvest.
Then I remembered that there were butcher shops in the business district. Dashing over there, ignoring my hunger, I entered a butcher shop.
It looked pretty typical, based on what I remember from a restaurant in the human world. There were a bunch of tables around the shop and a bunch of customers, too. Near the entrance, to the left of me, there was a counter and the shopkeeper. The line was short, thankfully, so I didn't have to wait long until I could eat up.
When it was my turn, the shopkeeper put out some cooked items-- porkchop, steak, and chicken. I picked all of them, and he asked for an emerald or two diamonds. Searching my inventory, I didn't have any-- but I remembered the diamonds I got during my mining trip. I told him to wait while I got the diamonds from my home.
I'm not gonna bore you with the details-- I managed to grab the diamonds from my chest and bring it back to the shop. To my surprise there weren't any extra customers in line-- so I was able to pay up and get the steak. All that was left was to find a table.
The tables were crowded. I couldn't find an open table. But then, in the corner of my eye, I caught David and Cory eating together at a table. Liana and Wesley were there, too. And thankfully there was one more open seat, so I decided to join them.
"Hey there," I said to my friends. "I didn't think you'd all be here in a single spot!"
"Oh, hey, Ian," Cory said. "I was just saying that, too!"
"It's nice to have us all here," Liana said.
So I sat down and ate up. I thought Liana and Wesley didn't know how our adventures went, when I first arrived at this world. I decided to recap what happened, and they listened intently. Afterward...
"That reminds me," I said. "How did you know where we were?"
Liana went silent, but Wesley spoke up. "Liana and I happened to just walk around in the woods," he said, "and then when we arrived near the cliff, I could just make out a bunch of yells. Looking up, I saw the three of you, informed my sister, and then... well, you know what."
"Just to change the subject, I'm ready to learn more-- but not about mining or crafting or anything on this 'major path'. I'm sure there's more than that."
"Well," Wesley said, "I think you mean combat or agriculture. From the looks of you, you don't really like combat. I'm rather skilled in agriculture, so I can help you if you want."
I took up his offer, and after finishing our meals, Wesley and I went outside. We stopped near my house, and Wesley put down a chest.
I opened it, and it contained some stuff from the farms I saw a few hours ago-- logs, dirt, water buckets, and some seeds. But there was also something that I didn't see-- a hoe.
"Um, okay," I said. "What now?"
"Take the logs and use it to build your frame, just like the ones over there. Don't worry about it if you don't get it first try."
I tried to replicate the frame I saw, and I guess I did it perfectly. Next thing I knew I had to do, without him explaining was to fill the frame with dirt.
"Well, putting the dirt in was obvious. Now what do I do?"
"Till the dirt with your hoe, then put some seeds in the farmland. Then let the seeds grow, and you've got some wheat. But I suggest breaking the middle column and filling that with water-- it'll grow faster that way."
After doing so, I had a feeling I was done. I thanked Wesley for his help, and went in my house to rest.
CHAPTER 3: Their Origins
A few hours later, I went out again. I checked my farm, and it looked like the wheat was already done. I plucked it out, and to my delight, I found out that I got some more seeds, so I could easily get supplies. Using the extra seeds I got, I filled the farm again.
Afterward, I went out, looking for David, and possibly Cory. Although he wasn't anywhere I thought he would be. I checked his house, then I checked the business district. Not in the library, church, butcher's shop, even the blacksmith, where I thought he would be.
But eventually I did find him. He was near the entrance of the tunnel. Ready for more, I approached him. "Okay," I said. "I've got to continue. What's the next step?"
"Well, uh... I don't really know," he said.
I couldn't believe his words. "What?! Well... is this the stopping point?" I really needed to continue on the path... perhaps the path that would take me home, which I realized yesterday.
"No, I'm sure it's not," said a familiar, girly voice, and I turned around to see Liana.
"Liana?" I asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I overheard you. You surely want to continue, and David might not know where to go next. But I do!"
"Oh, really?" David asked. "Can you take us there?"
I felt really suspicious. How did Liana know where to go? And... the string around her neck was bothering me, too. "Liana, before we go, I'll ask you something. How did you know where to go? And what's with the string around your neck?"
She kind of flinched a little. "Well," she said, "I know that my other friends are skilled in a single aspect of the Minecraft world, and I am, too. In my case, I'm well-versed in the dimensions."
"Dimensions...? You mean to tell me there's more than just this world?"
"The Overworld, you mean, and yes. Where we're going is back to the cave, and we're going to collect a special kind of block called obsidian. We need at least 10, then I'll tell you what's going to happen next."
"Hm. Okay. But... about the string...?"
"Oh, yes. I'll tell you..."
She pulls her string, revealing a pink heart-shaped gem. "This is a locket. Wesley gave this to me as a token of our relationship. I gave him a yellow, star-shaped locket. They're... really important items to us."
"Oh... so this means you're really close siblings, right?"
"Yeah... anyway, let's get going."
The three of us left the town, and went into the same cave. Going into the same route I took to get the diamonds, Liana approached the lava pool. Then she poured water on it, which turned the lava into... something.
"What is that stuff?" I asked her.
"This is the obsidian I was talking about," Liana replied. "Unfortunately, it's really strong-- and we're going to need a diamond pickaxe to break it. Do you have anything like that?"
I checked my inventory, but I only had one diamond. I realized that I spent the other two at the butcher's shop, and Cory had the other diamonds. "Uh... I've only got one. I spent the other two at the butcher's shop. David, do you have any diamonds?"
"I've only got one. And I've got two sticks, too."
"I guess this means we'll have to look for another diamond deposit."
Looking around the immediate area, there weren't any specks of diamond. So David and I went off to find another deposit. And find one we did. And there were a LOT of them.
But a scream rang out, and thinking Liana was in danger, I ran to help her. A zombie was threatening her... with... something like a shovel. For some reason, Liana wasn't lifting a finger to defend herself. So I jumped forward, and struck the zombie with my sword.
And it did not die!
"Oh..." I gulped.
The zombie pulled back and swung with its shovel, knocking me down. I tried to roll backward, but it landed another strike. One more, and that'd be it.
"Enough!" came a yell, and I looked back in time to see David charging. He struck the zombie across the face. The zombie retaliated and hit him right in the nuts. David fell down in pain. But this was my chance to counterattack!
I got up. And I didn't just do that. I pulled a leg-sweep attack before getting up, causing the zombie to trip. Then I jumped, and impaled it right in the chest.
"Thank you," gasped Liana.
"Why didn't you do anything? You could've died."
"...I don't fight. Nor do I know how to. I'm basically a... pacifist."
"Oh. Well... why?"
"I don't really like hurting others. But enough about that, let's get the obsidian."
That's when I realize we couldn't make a crafting table. I didn't have any wood. David was empty-handed on that, too. Even Liana didn't have that.
"Well," David said, "This means we have to leave the cave for a while and chop some trees down. But Liana, you come with us. We can't risk you getting attacked."
The three of us left the cave, and it was already nighttime. Were the days in this world always so quick? But there wasn't any time to think about that.
"Liana, stay close to me," I said, tugging her to my side. I went to a nearby tree and pulled my arm back to hit the tree. Suddenly...
"Sssp."
"Guuuuugh."
Clickety-clack.
"Just our luck," I snarled, not noticing this was the first time hearing these sounds, and whirled around to see a wave of mobs drawing up to us. Zombies, skeletons, spiders, even those pesky creepers.
David and I rushed forward. Liana stayed back, like the pacifist kid she is. We decided to work together and attack the same target. Simple strategy, right? We'd be able to deal with them one at a time, slowly but surely, right?
Wrong.
Not too soon we found ourselves swarmed by our target's backup. That meant ganging up on a target was out. Plus, we had Liana to think about, so we had to retreat often to check up on her, and to see if she wasn't being helplessly being attacked.
I was starting to think we wouldn't make it through this horde until I didn't see David anywhere. Turning around, he had a crafting table next to him and he was throwing two items at me. "Use these," David yelled. "Detonate the TNT with the flint and steel!"
I was gonna question him, but I realized that I had better things to do. Without a second thought, I placed the TNT on the ground and struck it with the flint and steel. I felt a tug on my armor then, and Liana yanked me back. Then she hurriedly built a wall between us and the horde.
I'm not gonna lie-- the sound of the explosion was the loudest sound I've ever heard. I covered my ears when I heard it. The explosion blasted the mobs to bits, but the wall blew up, too, and the three of us were knocked down, hurt, but not dead. By now the sun was coming up.
"How did you whip up those things so quick?" I asked David.
"Wasn't me who did that. Liana did."
I shot a look at her. She blushed.
"It was his idea," Liana said.
After that, we went back down in the cave. Then we got the diamonds we saw earlier, and used the crafting table Liana made earlier. Then I mined 10 obsidian blocks. Then we went back to the village.
"Alright, kiddo," I told Liana. "What do we do now?"
Liana shuddered a little, and took the obsidian blocks. She arranged the blocks in a vertical, upright oval. Then she took out the flint and steel she made earlier and struck the empty part. Immediately, a purple haze filled the gap.
"Woah. What the heck?!"
"This... is a Nether portal," Liana said softly. She shook again.
"And you're... scared?"
"Y... yes. The Nether is a hellish landscape, filled with fierce mobs, stronger than the ones you see here in the Overworld. But if my sources are correct, if we play our cards right, we can advance our civilization even further."
"I hope that's right," came a voice. No, it wasn't me, David, or even Liana. Turning around, we saw Cory and Wesley.
"Sis, we could be in danger," Wesley said in a concerned voice. "But you're right. We need to go further. I don't know why you kept this knowledge from me all this time, but I'm glad you knew it."
"And I knew waiting would pay off," Cory said.
"Let's go, guys," I said. "A new world awaits!" And at that, I stepped forward and into the portal.
CHAPTER 4: From the Far Reaches of Hell
When I came out the other end, all I could think was-- Wow. Liana wasn't joking. It really was a hellish landscape. There were these weird red blocks all around me, as if they were the grass and dirt back in the Overworld. Some blocks even had some white stuff embedded within them. And I couldn't see far, unlike the Overworld. There was fire everywhere, and there were a few places in which lava flowed. Looking up, I saw a yellow stone that glowed. And there were these weird... things around me.
No, I'm not talking about the red blocks, the fire, the glowy yellow stone, or even the lava. I'm talking about the mobs. Yeah, there were some mobs, but seriously, it was far weirder than the ones I've encountered thus far. When one walked up to me, I observed it. It looked like a pig, but it was standing upright, and its skin was rotting, as if it was a zombie. Even its skull and ribs were visible. It was even holding a sword. And not an ordinary sword. A golden one. But-- seriously? Why a golden sword, of all weapons? I mean, swords aren't bad, they're cool, even, but why make it out of soft, flimsy, gold?
I was still thinking about this when the gang emerged behind me. David, Cory, Wesley, and finally, Liana, who was holding Wesley's hand, maybe from fear. And the first thing they saw was this "zombie-pig" mob.
"So, Liana," I said, motioning to her. "You know this... thing, right?"
"U-Uh," she stuttered. "Yeah. That's a zombie pigman. It's a zombie, and a pig at the same time. It's normally harmless, but if you hit it, you'll anger it, and it'll attack. And even worse, it'll call for backup."
"Wow. Looks like we better avoid this thing." I did so by walking away with everyone following me. "What are we looking for?"
"A Nether fortress. And some Nether quartz. The Nether quartz is easy enough to find, but we'll need some luck for the for--"
But she didn't even get to finish her sentence. Halfway, we heard some weird voice. I looked behind me, but it looked like none of the guys said anything. But I did see something else. I thought I could see some cube floating in the distance.
Recoiling in shock, I pointed at the silhouette. Everyone turned, but it was gone. Everyone but Liana looked at me again, and shot me looks. The voice filled my ears again, this time coming from my right. I looked... and I did see a cube floating at us. But it also had something like tentacles under its body. I pointed again, and they looked just in time for the thing to open its mouth and shoot a fireball. Everyone flinched and yelled. Even David didn't do anything. But not me!
I rushed forward, quick as light, and spread open my arms. Now, I've been nearly blown up before back when David, Liana and I were in the woods. But unbeknownst to me, that was just a taste. I've never experienced the whole thing.
When the fireball hit, I was knocked off my feet. My ears were ringing, and a wave of pain crashed over my body. I thought I could also feel my bones breaking, and my flesh tearing. I looked up just in time to see another fireball emerging from the horizon, causing the whole chorus of hell to repeat. There'd be no way I'd be able to fight this thing-- I didn't have any ranged weapon. One more fireball, and that would be it. And that selfsame fireball emerged from the horizon once more-- albeit far away, giving me enough time to get up. And I did.
Purely on instinct, I unsheathed my sword and held it up. As soon as the fireball connected, the projectile was reflected! But it missed the target by a thin margin. At least I had a way to fight this thing now.
One more fireball, and I pulled back to strike. The sword hit the fireball, and this time the fireball connected, surprisingly killing it in one hit. I saw it drop something, but its loot fell and disappeared. I looked down and I saw an ocean of lava. "What was that?!"
"That... That was a ghast," Liana replied. "Those things shoot fireballs, and you can reflect them, just like you did. And--" at this I staggered in pain. "--you're hurt! Are you alright?"
"The pain won't go away."
"You might want to eat," Wesley said. "If you're full enough, your body will hyper-heal. Did you bring anything?"
I checked my inventory, and I didn't have anything except for wheat. I pulled it out and showed it to him.
"You can use that to make bread. I have a crafting table. Give me your wheat."
After I gave the wheat to him, he placed his crafting table, and arranged the wheat in a horizontal row. It made a loaf of bread. He gave it to me, and I ate it. True to his word, my body began to heal. Really quickly, at that.
"Well now," I said. "This might turn out to be helpful."
"That's an understatement," Wesley said. "Sis. What do we do?"
"We'll mine that quartz ore," she said, and pointed to the blocks I stated earlier, with white stuff embedded within them. She took out a pickaxe and started mining it. As soon as the block broke, I saw some white chunks fall out. "This is the first step towards modernizing our village. Also, we'll need to get more resources at a Nether fortress. Let's look for one."
And thus, we set out on our first, large-scale expedition.
But lemme tell you, finding a Nether fortress was easier said than done. I had no idea where to go, especially considering that we were just on a floating island, and under said island was just a pool of molten earth. Liana told me the first step to finding a Nether fortress was finding "Nether bricks"-- which I had no idea what she was talking about. Supposedly it was like bricks, but darker and more maroon. And apparently they were the main thing of a fortress.
But we weren't backed into a corner just yet. Cory knew some technique called "bridging", in which he walked backwards and placed blocks as he walked so he wouldn't fall. After a while, I could feel my patience wearing thin, but Cory told me to wait a little longer. He knew he'd find some more land or even a fortress, the very thing what we were looking for.
Later, WAY later, at that, we finally found more land. And it wasn't an island this time. It was more like a continent. But there was no fortress to be seen.
"You serious, kid?" I said. "All that time bridging over this burning ocean, and not even a hint of what we need."
"Keep your cool," Liana replied. "Fortresses aren't that common to begin with... but not rare, either. There might be one in the area."
But I had another problem to deal with. "I'm hungry," I complained. "That loaf of bread wasn't enough. There might be food here, but I doubt it." I analyzed my surroundings, hoping to see anything remotely edible. But it was hopeless. All I saw around me were blocks, and fire. But despite my limited vision, I thought I could see a silhouette.
Inching closer, I saw it was another zombie pigman. "You said these were pigmen, kiddo. And if they're like anything in my world or the Overworld, it should be good enough to eat! I mean, it's a pig, right?"
Without a second thought, I unsheathed my sword and charged. Liana yelled something like "Wait!" But I was too hungry to care. As soon as I ran up to the pigman, I struck it with a powerful blow.
Now let me just say here that I wish I wasn't all that hungry to begin with. At first, my memories were clouded. Only when I struck my quarry did I suddenly remember what pigmen were capable of.
When the blade hit, the pigman recoiled and let out some sort of shriek. And more pigmen appeared, each holding a golden sword. Liana wasn't joking when she said that pigmen could call for backup. And only then did they charge.
At first they tried a frontal assault, but then they quickly surrounded me. I could have called for help, but they struck me so many times that my cries for help turned into yells of pain. But it turned out I didn't have to.
As I was being ganged up on, I heard the sss of a fuse, and then a big explosion. Wesley had thrown TNT at the pigman horde to help. Cory provided support fire with his bow, and David just pulled a full-on, head-first assault. Liana pulled me back, and gave me a potion to drink. As I drank it, I could feel my wounds heal.
Now that I was able to fight again, I charged just like David did and helped him. I don't remember how we killed them, but all I remember is that we won, and the horde went down.
But to my dismay, they didn't drop anything that looked edible. Just something that looked like zombie flesh, and... gold nuggets? No, I don't mean nuggets like the edible thing. Nuggets made of literal gold.
I guess we could've used the currency. I grabbed the nuggets and split it between the five of us. That left the zombie flesh, which I picked up and winced at the utter grossness.
"As disgusting as it may be," Wesley piped up, "It's actually edible. Go on, try it."
I decided to take his word for it. I took a chunk and began munching down on it. But after I ate the last bite, it gave me something that might have been the worst aftertaste ever.
It did fill me a little, but it was so bad that in the end, it made me even hungrier. Without thinking, I ate all the chunks of rotten flesh I got from the battle. Luckily, it didn't get worse every time, but it felt longer. After it was all gone, I had no idea what to do. I was full, but all that food was gonna evaporate. I was still thinking when Wesley grabbed me and forced me to drink something. And suddenly, I was fine.
"What did you give me?! Not that I'm ungrateful, though. Thanks."
"I made you drink milk. If there's a change in your normal body functions, milk will wash it all away. You can think of it like an effect purger. It gets rid of bad stuff, but good stuff too, so if you've got any good effects, you might want to think twice before drinking it."
"Well, knowledge is power, after all. But do we have what we're really looking for? We need a fortress."
"There's one right there," Liana said, pointing to our left. And sure enough, there was a big column of nether bricks, what all Nether fortresses were made of.
CHAPTER 5: The Heart of a Hero
It didn't take us long to get inside the fortress. All we had to do was build a staircase all the way to the top. And before I even knew it, we were inside.
The first thing I saw at the start of the fortress was a staircase, with some brown blocks and some... red crops growing out of it? I wondered what it was, but as I was still thinking, Liana went over to the crops and plucked them out. And out of nowhere, she let out a scream.
Running over to her, the brown blocks had these... faces engraved in them. "Who did this?" I asked. "And how did those crops grow in the blocks?"
"I don't know who, exactly," Liana murmured. "But this stuff... it's soul sand. It looks every bit as scary as I thought it was. Supposedly it contains the souls of many deceased people."
"But... I didn't see any spirits around. How did those souls get in that... stuff?"
"Those souls came here to the Nether after their bodies died. It seems that the souls are impossible to see. And all those souls are destined to be trapped-- forever-- in this sand. I think that's why it's called 'soul sand'. And it gets even scarier when you step on them. The souls will grab at your feet, slowing your movement to a crawl. It could be used as a trap of sorts. But otherwise, it's not lethal."
"Wow. That's really creepy."
"I know, right? But we need this stuff. And I don't mean the soul sand. These are Nether warts." She held out some red seed-like things.
"Why?"
"They're essential for brewing potions like the one I gave you earlier. But if we want any chance of brewing potions, then we're going to need a brewing stand. I plucked them out of the soul sand. So we're going to need a lot of this."
So we helped her harvest the rest of the Nether warts. And after that, we moved up the stairs. It appeared that we were on a roof-- no, some sort of walkway, like the ones you see in castles. Except there weren't any archer holes or whatever. And after a while, we reached an intersection.
"So," I asked, "Where do we go next?"
"I don't know," Liana said. "We should look for a blaze spawner."
"Oh, boy. I've heard of those," David says. "They're basically like fire elementals, and they shoot fireballs at you."
"Right, David," Liana replied. "They're usually in a boxed-in area, so we should look for something like--"
But a fireball interrupted her. No, I don't mean a ghast fireball. Three fireballs flew by us, and we all took cover. Peeking out of my cover, there was one of the blazes that Liana was talking about.
"Well, speak of the devil," David hissed. "Guess we'll have to deal with this thing." David charged and struck the blaze. But as soon as he did, it flew up. David's sword was useless.
"I've got you," Cory yelled. He fired arrows at the blaze, each shot hitting perfectly. And soon the blaze went down. But just like my first ghast encounter, its loot fell. When I looked into where it would have landed, all I saw was lava. That meant whatever it dropped was gone.
"We've just gotta keep trying," I said.
"Yeah," Wesley said. "Gotta keep trying at staying alive! I could use some help!" When I turned, Wesley was hacking at a skeleton, but it was black, taller, and instead of a bow, it had a stone sword. The skeleton landed a hit on Wesley, knocking him down. Snarling, I charged and struck the skeleton, pushing it into the lava.
"That was a close call."
"Yeah, no kidding," I gasped.
After those battles, we continued our search for a blaze spawner. It felt like we were walking forever. We walked across innumerable walkways, some of which were dug into the hellish landscape. We had to decide which way to go whenever we reached a crosswalk, and even after all of those troubles, we still found nothing. At another crosswalk, we took a break.
"Geez," I gasped. "Do these blaze spawners even exist?"
"Keep your cool, dude," Cory wheezed. "Of course they do."
"He's right," Liana said. "They do exist, but I never thought they'd be this rare."
At this, I couldn't believe what she was saying. "Wait, are you implying that they're almost impossible to find?!"
"No. The amount of spawners within a fortress are completely different between every single one of them. We probably came across a fortress that doesn't have many spawners."
"Then... that means we gotta look in every corner. We should probably split up. We'll have more chance that way. We should meet up here again. If we find anything, we gotta tell, alright?"
"I guess I'll go by myself," David said. "Cory and I often work together, but I think this time we should split up."
"Agreed, bro," nodded Cory. "We'll cover more ground that way."
"What about those two?" David pointed to Liana and Wesley. For a moment, they both said nothing. In fact, nobody said anything until I piped up.
"Well... Liana, Wesley and I will all go together. After all, Wesley can fight and protect Liana, but I doubt he'd be able to hold for long."
"I guess that's for the best," Cory said. "Alright, no more wasting time. Let's get going."
David and Cory ran in opposite directions, and I took Liana and Wesley with me on the path ahead. I just kept running and running and running and running and... well, you get the point. My path was so long that it felt like I was running forever. Maybe Liana even thought this was ludicrously long for a fortress. I had no idea how long I'd last, because I could feel slight hunger kicking in.
I then slowed to a walk, and eventually I stopped again.
"Ughhhhh. This path probably doesn't even have a spawner to begin with. I think... I should go back..."
But just when I turned and slowly started to slump back, I felt something grab my hand. I looked back, and Liana was restraining me.
"...What? Is something wrong, kid?"
"I'm not giving up," Liana whispered. "Not after I got this far with your help. So don't give up on me, either, okay?" She seemed serious, yet she had the same gentle smile on her face. I got the feeling that she was a very determined kid. Wesley also stood behind her, smiling. It looked like he was proud of his little sister.
"Tell you what. David's actually a hero to our village. And to me, you seem like you look up to him as your role model. If you wanna be a hero like him, you must never give up, no matter what!"
Truth be told, I never really thought of David like that. But something told me that Liana was speaking the truth. I couldn't help but chuckle in agreement. So I picked her up and looked into her eyes.
"Yeah. You're right. I shouldn't ever give up. Otherwise, I'd be nothing more than a commoner."
Liana nodded, then I put her down. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wesley flash a wink and a thumbs-up. Afterward, we continued running on the path. For some reason up until this point the path was just a REALLY long straightway until we came across a curve to the left. Then we came across another room. A staircase was barely visible, and the three of us climbed it.
(More coming soon)
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