Author's Note: This is a little mini-series I will be doing on the side of Mass Effect, it will have multiple chapters each in the point of view of different mobs from Minecraft, this one is the player, A.K.A. Steve. Coming up next however is everyone's favorite: the creeper. I started writing this and it morphed into a form of second person, I like it for this one, but not all of them may be that way.
The Miner
Morning sunshine fills the air as you trot across the open ground filled with flowers and grass. Your pickaxe hefted over your shoulder you head off from your wooden home in search of adventure.
Splashing through a small stream and scaling some mountains while munching on your porkchops, an eerie sound of ambiance fills the air. You listen closely and you hear the faint rushing noise of underground water and adventure. You lift your shovel and strike it into the ground. But the dirt beneath your feet crumbles and you fall into a dark cave, the sunlight above you barely visible. You turn to survey the cave taking in its features, when you spy a vein of iron, throbbing with the hardy substance.
Already excited, you rush towards it, bringing your pick down as it seeks purchase on the gleaming vein, hoping to rupture it, and that it will deposit some of the robust material.
The sun rides high in the sky at a brisk noon, but you pay no notice as you continue hacking away beneath the earth happy as can be collecting the iron, before moving onto a rich deposit of coal.
The cave revealed to you has an intricate tunnel system, filled with ores and wonders. You think about heading back to the overworld when more iron catches your attention, banishing the thought. As you plonk a torch down onto the ground and begin to swing your pick in a steady rhythm, you hear a distinct rattling noise, almost like bone on bone. You turn slowly, sweat dripping off of your flat face as you shuffle your blocky legs. You see a pale white figure standing menacingly behind you, brandishing a bow. You hoist your sword defiantly at a skeletal archer whose bones are bleached white. You charge, dodging arrows that the fleshless warrior flings at you. You swing your sword in a wide arc and bring it down upon the archer, smashing the threat into a pile of bones. You lift your pick once more and return to separating iron from stone as the sun begins to set on the surface world. Oblivious, you continue ever further down into the bowels of the very earth.
You pause for a moment near an underground stream as you wrench open your backpack, taking stock of what you have. You turn the pack over scattering everything across the stone floor of the cave. You have some sticks, a portable crafting bench, a small furnace, some coal, iron ore, and a nearly broken stone pick. Immediately you get the furnace running with a bit of coal and you smelt the iron, watching it melt in the bright fire. When the ore has been transformed into bars, you fashion yourself a new pick using the crafting bench and some sticks. When it is done you admire your work, proud that you have a brand new gleaming iron pick in your hands, ready to mine through the hard stone, and uncover precious minerals. After restoring the contents of your backpack you travel onwards through the tunnel system, always traveling deeper into the ground, collecting materials as you go.
Not before long, a distant popping sound meets your ears, as does a deep, throaty moan. You turn toward the sounds only to see bare stone obstructing your path. Unhindered, you mine straight through the grey blocks until your pick scores the open air of another chamber. Light gathers around you as a solitary pool of lava comes into view. As you take in the sight you notice a green-skinned fiend, patrolling almost like a guardian to the next tunnel, on the other side of the pool. You search for a way across, but to no avail. So you simply step up to the edge of the pool and crouch hesitantly on the edge of the red-hot pool. You sweat profusely, your turquoise shirt dampening as the heat of the lava radiates off of the molten rock below. You place a block of dirt beneath you as you slowly creep across the pool placing more blocks beneath you as you go. When you reach the other side the green skinned guardian moves slowly towards you, arms outstretched as he makes his assault. You raise your sword once more and stab at him, the point slicing straight through it's stomach. He falls to the ground in a heap of rotten flesh, which you pointedly avoid.
After collecting a few more nearby materials including gold and the odd, lapis lazuli, you continue your adventure through the passage on the other side. Abandoning the lava pool behind you, you continue on, going even deeper down into the stone. After awhile you see a dim light at the end of the passage, and you eagerly rush towards it curious to see what treasures lay beyond. You stop dead at the edge or a great ravine, with both lava and water pooling at the bottom, clashing to make obsidian. You look across from you and spy a glowing vein of redstone. You promptly begin to place blocks beneath you to reach the other side, so that you can harvest the luminescent red dust. As you begin harvest it you hear a high pitched squeal from below you. You look down and see a black hairy, eight-legged creature, with deep red eyes staring up at you. It screeches again and begins to scale the wall. You pull out your trusty sword as it tries to push its way onto the small platform on which you are standing and slash at it, warding it back. The dark creature pauses a moment before continuing on. It nears the edge but is stopped by your sword slicing it, throwing it off of the wall, sending it into the lava below. You let out a sigh before wiping your square hand over your flat forehead in relief.
After mining the red dust you continue your adventure, backpack filled with treasures. But only one fabled mineral has eluded you, every miner's dream; the diamond. You continue on, spirits high, eating a cooked porkchop with your pickaxe swinging at your side. After finishing off your porkchop you continue through the tunnel but stop dead as you see a gleaming substance out of the corner of your eye. You spin around, not believing what you see. Almost as an answer to your thoughts, right in front of you nestled in the stone was a deposit of gleaming diamonds. You sprint over to the precious minerals intent on relieving them of their stone prison. You begin to carefully chisel away at the rocks encasing the valuable stones. But as you carve the diamonds from the rock you are completely unaware of the expressionless green creature creeping up behind you. As it draws closer you hear the click of its feet on the stone and you whip around staring face to face with the creature. You unsheathe your stone sword and brandish it at the green monster. Swinging your sword downward you can't help but notice at the last second, the crack on the swords handle that connected it to the blade. You watch in horror as it breaks as soon as it hits the creatures head, the blade bouncing off harmlessly. You back away into a wall and watch as the green menace creeps closer. You hear a horrible hissing noise and you see a bright light and then only blackness.
A couple seconds later you awake on your back in the same place you had entered this world to the rising sun. And so begins again the endless toil of the miner.