STEAM CRAFT
Chapter 1
The cave was dark and humid, yet Max couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine. He was almost certain that something was watching him from the shadows but he couldn't see much except for what his torch illuminated. He continued to mine with his pickaxe, the feeling still hanging over him. 'It's so close! I can almost taste it! No, wait, that's just the taste of the peanuts that Ross gave me still in my mouth.' He didn't understand why his friend liked nuts but maybe it had to do with him being a squirrel.
One last strike with the pickaxe and another stone block broke into a smaller portion of itself. Before Max could put the block into his inventory, a voice behind him spoke up, almost giving him a heart attack. "Max, what are you doing? You sure mind in strange positions." It was Ross. He had to admit, his position at the moment wasn't the most flattering or easiest way to mine. One leg was stretched out behind him while the other was stretched out the other way, except it bent at the knee. This position gave him a "triumphant" look and it looked cool (in his eyes at least).
"Shut it squirrel boy!" Max angrily yelled the human-squirrel hybrid. It wasn't too long ago when Ross, AKA YourPalRoss, dragged him on this adventure to find the "legendary ore" that was said to bring machines to life without using steam. This would be revolutionary if they managed to find the damn thing. Max, AKA Mithzan, was working at the airshipyard when the squirrel, who was an engineer major at their local university and was also Max's roommate, ran up to him. He raved about the "legendary ore" that he learned about in one of his many urban legend books. At the time, Max didn't believe him about the ore but still agreed to go with him to a cave in the middle of Ganarra Desert. Along the way, he began to believe more and more into the ore. He wasn't sure if it was just because he was around Ross, who believes in the ore, himself, or something else entirely.
Max picked up the stone ore that he had just mined and placed it into his inventory with the other 64+ stone blocks. When he finally looked up, he saw It. It being the one thing him and his friend were looking for. It looked like any other ore stone except it had purple ore. "YES! We finally found it! The legendary ore!"
Ross, who was writing into his notebook (and adding a doodle of an angry Max in the corner), jerked his head up. He ran up next to the ginger, almost running him over in the process, and peered into the square hole that Max had just mined.
"Hurry! Mine it!" Ross's squirrel tail was twitching around like crazy. Max started to mine into it and was stunned by how long it took for the ore to finally break. It was as if the ore was a block of obsidian. After long last, the ore broke and Ross snatched it up to inspect it. The amethyst color gleamed in the torchlight. When Ross gazed into the ore pieces, he say tiny lights flicker by. "I-it's more beautiful than I could've ever imagined." Ross whispered just loud enough for his friend/roommate to hear.
"Now that we have it, let's get the hell out of here. This places gives me the creeps." As if on que, a low growl was heard above them. A strange monster crawled out of a square hole and was making its way down towards the pair. It was a strange mixture of spider and zombie with a touch of machinery. "Run...RUN NOW!" Max grabbed Ross by the back of his vest and began running down the pathway they came, the mechanical spider-zombie thing close behind them.