A week had passed since I had first set my eyes on the lake.
The days went on either cutting wood in the forest or digging dirt in the caverns. A lot of material was gathered on my part and even more when all of the guild members pooled together. Most of it went into building homes or tools. I myself had set the foundation of what would be my house.
I had found out that the great Ocean was but two hundred yards away from the lake, separated only by the mountain of a hill where I spent my working days. When I saw the ocean and the beach from the above I decided that it would be a great place to live, with the fresh ocean wind and my working place nearby, I could cut a way through the forest to the home base and light it up with lanterns. I also played with the thought of building an underground tunnel towards the cave system of the base but I put that thought away until I was done with the house itself.
The headquarters of our base became a little bigger after someone replaced the dirt walls with actual cobblestone and built a second level with wooden planks. The half island within the lake that I saw when I first got there had become a building site for a tower, it was growing steady a few yards a day. Most of the material being used for that was stone from the mines and some of the wood gathered by me. A few other houses of lesser size and importance were being build here and there.
Each day was filled with hard work. Blistering hands and sweat and happy resting hours.
God and some other faction members had found volcanic glass while digging and brought it up to the surface afterwards. It was a black element, tougher than rock and iron but fragile enough to hack shards of the mother stone and take. It took its toll on the tools of the people who dug it though as it was harder than most elements we had at our disposal. God became obsessed with it and started searching the tunnels for more of it. It was obvious what he wanted: a Gate of Hell.
The people of the Godlikeones had heard of them from their journeys, about far away adventurers who stumbled across runes left by "The Notched forefathers" that told the adventurers about a black circle of dragon steel that would lead whoever passed through to their doom. They said that what lied beyond the gate was fire and foul creatures.
During my time alone I had encountered volcanic glass before but I had never had the will to make myself a gate much less walk through one.
I didn't share my concerns on this matter though so I kept myself busy helping out whoever needed assistance. Once, I even followed the hunter and helped carrying his catch. The days just went on and on and I started noticing that the supply of wood was not getting depleted. I was gathering more than the whole eleven of us were using. So I started thinking on what I could do with it all. The answer came to one day when I was on the hill, in between a meal and more woodchopping when I saw something in the ocean. I could not see it clearly enough at that distance but I guessed that it was a ship. A ship from somewhere where they built it going to somewhere to dock. A harbor. I wasn't sure how trade was organized in between societies here in the open but a harbor would probably help it and would definitively look amazing. I decided I wanted to make the port big or bigger than the houses in our village and I spent the rest of the evening marking and noting where to place supportive pillars on the beach. This took me untill sundown and I headed for the mines to dig some ore before the day was over. I came home to my hut on the beach late at night and fell on my bed half-asleep. I remember dreaming of great ships with big white sails entering my harbor, I was the overseer and ruler in a big mansion built on the port and I took tax from everyone.
Three days and three nights later I was fully occupied, the port was coming up nicely. At some point my fellow clansmen asked if I wanted help and I even accepted some when creating the platform of the port but I wanted to make the rest of it myself. This day I was up in the air building the walls of the warehouse of the port with a management room on top that would oversee all of the port. Standing on top of a single wooden wall I took a minute to breath and looked over my work. Then I saw him.
I still remember what he looked like, he was wearing the fur of a tiger top to bottom, he was carrying something in his right hand. I assumed that he was a member of the faction even though I didn't recognize him, then again most of the faction members were always busy so I did not see everyone at once and one could change his outlook whenever he wanted. I returned to my work.
A few minutes later I heard an explosion, I looked and saw from where i was standing that there was a crator near some buildings and not far from my own beach house. I tried to rationalize the event by thinking that he was probably mining using black powder so I yelled out.
"Be carefull! You are digging near the buildings!"
The striped one ignored me and in a moment he was placing explosives all over the settlement! He was getting the entire village blown up and it was when my clansmen reacted. Unfortunately he was armed with a diamond sword, a fine weapon and deadly in wrong hands. Out of nowhere came other people to the aid of the striped one. I was hurrying of the wall when the entire harbor shook and splinters flew in all directions. I lost my footing and fell. I bounced of the hard wood and into the water, the impact took my breath away and I was choking underwater. Panic filled me as I writhed under the surface "What is happening?!". I grabbed onto something hard under water and realized that it was one of the supporting pillars and also that I could pull myself up! Then I felt all of the water around me move as if pushed and I felt a tackle and heard the sound of another explosion. The pillar erupted in wooden splinters and shredded my hands. I screamed in pain and for a second the surface of the water was lowered due to water being pushed away and I could hear the sound of my own voice. I didn't have time to take a breath as the force of nature that is ocean moved to reclaim its space but it took me with it and I was at the surface.
I crawled myself on the beach and I could smell sulfur and charcoal in the air. I was exhausted and could barely move but I had to get back, I had to stop those invaders before everything we had worked for turned to dust! I got on my feet and went as fast as I could towards the headquarters. There was nothing left but fire and craters, the latter were slowly being filled with water from the lake. Could see my clansmen fighting and fleeing on the other side of the lake, want to aid them in battle filled me but good sense told me that I would be unable to do anything while unarmed. "The mines! They always keep tools in the mines!" But the headquarters were destroyed. I scuffed over to where the dirthouse once stood and saw that the stairs were partailly intact. Though covered in rubble the lower steps were solid enough to walk on. I jumped down six feet into the crater and landed with a grunt, rushed down the steps and into the mines.
At the crossroads of several tunnels the fire had died but torches on the wall reamained burning and illuminated the entire cave. In the middle of the cave crossing stood several chests open, I rushed to them and saw that they were all but empty, only a few chunks of stone lied spread around the chests.
"DAMN IT!" I swore out loud! "DAMNT ITDAMNITdamnitdamnit-" the caves echoed.
I didn't know what to do, so tired, so hopeless, so angry.
"NINTHSQUAD! NINTHSQUAD ARE YOU IN THERE! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" I heard Gods voice, the caves distorted it so I could not guess where it came from.
"WHERE ARE YOU?"
"I AM UP HERE ON THE SURFACE!"
I ran up the steps, breathing heavy with every steps and saw him standing on a ledge, high above my head. He was shining blue in diamond plate armor and standing in the sun. I was in a crator and he was 6 or more feet above me.
"Here." He went on one knee and stretched down one hand, I grabbed it and he pulled me out of the hole. Once I was out he stood up turned around and ran "Follow me!" I didn't question, I quietly followed him. I noticed that he was wearing a heavy leather bag and many satchels on his back. He ran through a hole in the side of the hill that I knew so well and I followed him in. The inside of the dirt cave was illuminated by the weak purple hue of a portal.
"Are we going through it? What about the village, what about the rest of those that are out there?"
"We dont have time for this." He reached behind his back, pulled out a satchel and put his hand in it. "Duck and cover!" He then threw it outside the dirt cave in the open.
"What are we-"
*BOOM*
The entrance collapsed and I felt as if I got kicked in the chest by the blast.
"There, that will buy us time." God took of his leather backpack and started looking it it.
"Listen Ninth', I will pass through the gate and I will take the treasures of our clan with me. I will pass the through the gates and destroy it on the other side." He stood up and shoved something in my hands. It was a pick axe made out of diamond, the single most trustfull and effective tool that a miner could have. A treasure for everyone there is and quite rare. And I held it in my hands.
"You on the other hand have to stay here and destroy the gate from this side, just break the circle of Obsidian and the portal shall die. If you don't then whoever is on the already on the other side will get followed by the powder gangsters outside. Keep the pick'."
I watched him grab the backpack and vanish into the portal. I watched it for a while, a purple vortex of shining dust in the middle of a black frame, quite a beautiful structure in deed. I swung the pickaxe over my head and brought it down on the black glass.
*CLINK*
It left a mark but not much more. I raised the pick and used all of my weight and strength this time.
*CLINK*
This time I hit in a different spot. A tiny crack formed between the new spot and the old.
*CLINK*
I started hearing rustling behind me.
*CLINK*
It became lauder and I heard a faint sound of breathing. I turned around to ensure that the passage was still caved in and then I swung again.
*CLINK*
"Hey Jerry come and help me out, there is a hidden passage over here and someone is in it!"
They were gaining on me, I had to hurry.
*CLINK*
The cracks spread across the stone like a spiders web. The light of the portal started to change. I looked at it for a second and noticed something odd, I was not sure of it but it seemed as if the Vortex of purple was different. I did not have the time to be a philosopher about it.
*CLINK*
*CLINK*
*CLINK*
The cracks spread and danced irregularly across the smooth and sharp black glass. I kept hacking and hacking to the sound of my pursuers digging the dirt. I guessed that they would be faster in their work than I in mine since there was a lot of them working together while I was alone. I had to finish my job and break this sodding rock!
*CLINK* 'Come on!'
*CLINK* The cracks were now covering a good portion of the right downside of the ring. It wouldn't be long now.
*CLINK* 'Just break already!' Shards of volcanic glass were now flying with every hack.
*CLINK* A big part of the glass ruptured and fell of the portal, the ring was now very thin but the portal was still glowing.
*CLINK* "Sweet father Notch, watching overl all of his children. Guide us to diamonds, make our seeds grow and fill my veins with strength-"
*CLINK* "For I am but a dwarf digging a hole. I seek your guidance and might in the time of need-"
*CLINK* "If not for me then for my fellow dwarfs and kinsmen."
*CLINK*
The was suddenly illuminated with bright daylight and I could see my shadow before me on a wall. 'No not now, not yet!'. I looked across my should and saw that a hole had been dug out in the wall and I saw the blue glimmering of the lake. 'Should I dig and fill the hole? No there is more of them than there is of me, I won't be able to fill it at the same rate that they dig it. I can't continue mining because I will not make it in time before they stab me in my back. Only option is to fight them and hope to kill them and finish what I started later on.'
I turned around facing the entrance, I could see hands digging it and shovels on the other side. The hole was gradually getting larger and finally I saw someones face when they removed a big chunk dirt at my eyelevel. I took a step forward, swinging my pick axe, ready to strike the first bastard that will come through.
And then a massive pillar of gravel fell through ceiling, where the chunk of earth just hanged. It fell and filled everything, it filled the dirtcave untill it was at my kneelevel, making me trip, and it completely shut of me from the outside world. I could hear scream and curses from the outside.
I realised that this was my best chance and I turned back to the portal and started hacking with might and speed that I did not believe I had in my body.
*CLINK* Shards were flying.
*CLINK* One of them cut me in the stomach.
*CLINK* 'It does not matter'
*CLINK* I could almost see the dirt behind the portal.
*CLINK* The diamond pickaxe glimmered beatifully in the purple light.
*CRACK*
Darkness. The portal died instantly and so did its light. It left me in absolute darkness. The air was bad, I had used up most of it in here. I pulled myself out of the gravel and sat down on the edge of what remained of the portal with the pickaxe between my knees. I was tired, so tired, but I had completed what I was asked and blocked the way to my comrades on the other side of the Gate. Whoever came in would not pass.
I would have lost sense of time in the dark were it not for the sharp black shards of my seat that cut into my flesh whenever I got too comfortable sitting. I leaned forward and held the pickaxe with both hands, one atop the other, as I listened to the marauders clawing their way inside.
Finally they had cleared the passage, they took their sweet time make the opening wide enough for two people to enter before the first one stepped in. He was dressed in chain mail and an iron helmet, in his hand he carried a box of what I guessed was explosives and in another he held a sword of iron, judging by the shining of it.
He saw me and jumped forward swinging. I took no measure for protecting myself since I judged that the distance was to far for him to reach me in one leap. I was right. However once he had landed on the soft gravel he fell face forward and lost his guard.
I realised that my days were not counted yet and I rised pickaxe in hands. As he was lying face down in gravel I raised the pickaxe and brought it down on his head. 'Iron and skull are so easy to crack after obsidian." I had enough time afterwards to pull of his mail and put it on myself, barely but I did it. I saw a shadow in the opening and I grabbed the dead ones sword and rushed at my enemy. He backed wisely enough and went sideways once outside. I swung pick and sword at him and he blocked some and dodged most. I kept going on at him and he retreated untill he came to a ledge of the hill and could retreat no longer.
I threw the sword at him which bounced of his when i parried and then I stepped up close. I blocked a cut to my throat before the fast bastard swund again and went for my side. That blow hit but the chain mail protected me from a cut as if I was hit with a blunt weapon. I pushed my foe with all the strength in my upper body and then kicked him of the ledge.
The marauder went down rollin' but he stood up once he hit the bottom.
I had the high ground though and I started running into the forest and away from there. 'Once I am in my forest it is my terrain. There shall be no way for them to catch up to me.'
For the next few weeks I would be the beggar of the forest, hunting with makeshift traps and sleeping in trees. Walking a few hours a day south, away from the lake, the portal and the marauders were.
Once I spent the night looking at the diamond pickaxe, wondering what happened to the rest of the faction members, who survived and who went through the portal besides God. I played with the idea of uttering faction home and going back, but there was nothing there but craters and death.
I fell asleep dreaming of a harbor.
I am finally done with the first arc of the Godlike1's story, it took me more time than I expected but I like how it turned out, its fun to write though and it makes me want to play minecraft again, but I don't have the time to commit to that though. If anyone recognise the events then please message me, I would be glad to talk about the days long gone. Oh by the way, this happened a year and a half ago and since then I have experienced a lot more adventures to write about, the original "Memoirs of a clan member" included many more adventures but it doesn't even cover half of my exploits and memories.
I got a review from someone who seemed interested and I feel happy about it, please keep the reviews coming so that I know that I have someone to write for.
May the great Notch- ahh you know what I don't feel like praising that guy anymore.
Cheers!