Sorry for the wait, but balancing college and fanfictions is pretty hard. But, without further ado, I present to you Chapter 9!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Minecraft!
-Vincent's POV-
"Damn..." I groaned as I sat up in my bed. I was sore as hell from the Christmas party the night before. Chuckling, I thought back to the gifts everyone had exchanged. Cage had made a custom Ender Pearl for Andr. The pearl was made of Red Endirium, the most volatile, and powerful, strain of the strange metal. In order to stabilize it, Cage had implanted a singularity from Applied Energistics in side the already stunning pearl. The singularity seemed to swirl inside of the red crystal, causing a stunning effect. The pearl's energy combined with the gravity of the singularity made it damn near indestructible and allowed Andr to teleport between dimensions. The sight of it had driven Andr to tears, calling Cage an idiot for doing something so risky but hugging him so tightly that he could barely breathe. Shade's gift to Terra was equally stunning. The guy had a way with materials from the Nether and found a way to process soul sand into a type of glass. The material was pitch black, but if you looked and listens closely, you could see the faces and hear the voices of the souls trapped inside. Using Nether Quartz to clear up the glass a bit, and, after days of hunting in the Nether, finally found a Darkwood tree. The trees had solid black leaves, dark blue wood, and beautiful sea green blossoms. He had retrieved one of those blossoms and encased it in the glass he had made. He had me make a gold chain for it, and when Terra pulled the necklace out of the box, we all stifled a gasp at its beauty. Terra stared in awe as Shade placed it around her neck, the blossom contrasting sharply with her eyes. She was speechless at the beautiful necklace, and simply kissed Shade as way of thanks. Jack and Erica had special weapons made for each other. Jack had me make a custom .50 caliber rifle, which consisted of a special Manyullyn/Alumite alloy. The metal is silver highly durable, light as a feather, and did an amazing job absorbing recoil. I even custom made the rounds, each having an Adamantium tip, meaning they can pierce damn near anything. Erica beamed when she was handed the shining weapon, then blushed as she handed Jack his gift. It was a new blade, black as midnight. The metal was an alloy between the glass Shade had discovered, Diamond and Nether Quartz. The blade had a little heft to it, but it was sharp and sturdy enough to cut through Manyullyn like a hot knife through butter. Jack admired the blade, a sly grin curling his lips. He thanked Erica for the gift and flashed her a bright smile, causing her to blush. The rest of us laughed at her embarrassment, then turned out attention to Gabe and Cupa. The two of them had been holding each other close all day, meaning they had finally confessed to each other. All of us smiled and started the real party. Cage broke out the drinks, non-alcoholic ones for those who either couldn't handle or didn't like the rum he had made. I thought I was delicious, as did everyone else, even though it's the cause of my killer headache. I couldn't remember anything after that, but I decided it would be best to not worry about it and get up. I slid out of bed and walked into my smithy. First thing I did was take inventory of my smelted metals and raw materials. As I expected, my stocks of raw ores was almost depleted. Slightly excited at being able to head back to the mines, I quickly packed my bags and set off towards the mineshaft. Cage had upgraded the entrance, placing an elevator. I stepped inside and hit the button to the floor that held my special place. Picking my way through the tunnels, I opened up the wall to the lake of lava and walked inside.
"This is the best place to get the main thing I need." I said to myself, pulling several buckets of water out of my pack. "I'm gonna need plenty of obsidian if I'm going to make any of my specialized alloys." I took the first bucket and sloshed the water onto the lava, some of the surface transforming into the purple stone I was looking for. Slipping on my fireproof gloves I use in my smithing, I grabbed the edges of the slab and hoisted it out of the molten rock. Using my pick, I broke down the slab into manageable pieces and fit them into my pack. I repeated the process a few times until my ore pack was about half full. Placing my pick back into my pack, I noticed my lunch was missing. I frantically searched the surrounding area, only to find a woman chowing on my sandwiches. She had greenish hair tied back in a ponytail, bright golden eyes, a pink and white striped tank top, a scabbard laying next to her, and a pair of jeans with one of the legs cut off. I could feel anger build as she continued to eat.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" I yelled at the girl, causing her to jump.
"I could ask you the same thing!" She yelled back when she regained her composure. "I come here, to find you harvesting my spot for obsidian! What the hell's wrong with you!?"
"Your spot!?" I scoffed. "Yeah right! I've been coming here for the past three months! Now are you going to explain why your eating my lunch!?" Rather than answer my question, she shot me a cold glare. Scarfing down the remainder of the sandwich and stood up.
"So it was you who dug that blasted tunnel..." She seethed. "You've got a lot of nerve for invading my territory. Of course, there are consequences." She further amplified her point by drawing her blade. At first glance, the blade seemed to be made of gold, but my keen eye for metal told me otherwise. The shining metal had a dark tinge to it, indicating that it was a gold alloy, most likely a strong one. In response, I drew mine and leveled it at her.
"I have no desire to fight," I said as I took my stance,"but I can see that there's no reasoning with you." The words had barely left my mouth before she flew at me. I easily parried the blow and landed a fist to her stomach. She coughed a bit before looking up at me with surprise.
"Impressive!" She said. "I didn't know there were humans that could block that attack."
"Your "attack" left you wide open." I chided, rolling my eyes. "It'll take more than that to bring me down."
"Is that so?" She asked, a cold smile curling her lips. "Then block this!" She flew at me once again, but with much more skill and force. It took all I had to keep her sword from cutting deep. Before long, she had backed me up to the lava lake and knock my blade from my hands. "Checkmate." She said with a smug grin, uppercutting my into the air.
'It's not a bad way to go' I thought to myself as I fell towards the lava below, but just before I hit the molten rock, I felt something shift inside of me, like the very fiber of my being changed. As I hit the lava, I felt no pain and I heard a voice in my head begin to speak.
'Time for Round 2!'
-?'s POV-
Turning my back on the unfortunate soul in the lava behind me, I picked up his sword and was awestruck by its make. The blade was black with strips of red lacing through it. I could tell that the red was Adamantium, but the black material was completely foreign to me.
"Whoever he was," I said with a sigh, "he was an amazing smith. Makes me feel kinda shitty for killing him." I walked over to his pack and picked through it, admiring his armor and pickaxes, all of which were made of materials I've never seen before, which was amazing considering I see myself as a blacksmith. I was about to pocket some gold I found in the bottom of his bag when I felt a presence behind me, and a ominous one at that. I lashed out only to have my wrist caught and my arm twisted up behind me. I cried out in pain and tried to break freedom, looking behind me to see who my assailant was. Much to my surprise and horror, it was the very same human who I had launched into the lava, but he didn't seem human anymore. His eyes were golden, just like mine and his presence and strength were totally different than before. With a single fluid motion, he disarmed me then sent me flying into a wall. I shakily stood up and stared at the man before me, curious as how he was still alive. I contemplated on running for my blade, but his stance made it clear that I wasn't going to be able to make it anywhere close. With a sigh, I stretched my arms out to my sides, hands hanging limp.
"I'm sorry for this," I said, tapping into the surrounding gold deposits, "but this time, stay dead!" With that I drew the surrounding gold out of the walls, molded it into spikes and launched them at the man. The spires of the shining metal careened towards him, only to stop short and hover in mid-air. Whilst the points of the spikes were turning in my direction, he spoke for the first time ever since he crawled out of the lava.
"Through kindred duel have my damned blade and power returned to me!" He said in a hollow voice. "The Zombie Pigman's blade now lies ready and eager to spill blood!" As those words his mouth, the spikes flew back at me. I managed to deflect most of them, but in the process, had to jump onto one of the obsidian spires. I watched in confusion as the man held his hand up towards me then closed his fist, but immediately found out the meaning when the obsidian closed up around me. Futility, I struggled to get free, fear rising as he drew closer. I stopped moving once he was in front of me, trembling in fear for the first time in my life. As he raised his hand, I closed my eyes and awaited the crushing pain of the obsidian reducing me to jelly, but only felt him cuff me upside the head. My eyes snapped open to be met with a warm glance being cast my way.
"You're an idiot, you know that?" He said with a laugh. All I could do was stare, flabbergasted be this sudden change in demeanor. "Will you behave if I let you loose?" I quickly nodded and the obsidian receded, allowing me to breathe normally.
"How'd you do that?" I asked him. "It's like Alchemy, but it's so different."
"What's Alchemy?" He asked, throughly confused.
"It's a natural ability for humanized Zombie Pigmen. It allows us to control and shape gold. In my case I can control iron as well, and can change their hardness, but it seems you can control obsidian. Not only that, but it's like you changed to a Zombie Pigman. What happened?"
"I'm not sure." He said. "I'll have to asked a friend of mine about it. So, what about this place?"
"You won..." I said, deflated. "You can have this place. It's only fair."
"Tell you what," he said with a grin, "I've got a suggestion. You seem pretty intelligible when it comes to metals, yes?"
"Well I do consider myself as blacksmith, but I can't even tell what alloys you're using."
"Fair enough, but you do seem reliable. So, how bout this; if you help me mine and work my forge, I'll let you use this place as much as you wish and set you up a room in my smithy. Deal?"
"Why would you even ask me that!?" I asked, genuinely surprised. "I just tried to kill you!"
"You're a worthy opponent." He said. "You have my respect, which is exactly why I didn't crush you and why I'm extending you this offer." I thought for a bit, rolling his words through my head.
"All right, I accept." I finally said.
"Then let's get started!" With that he jumped up and gathered his things. We spent the next few hours mining and talking, eventually finding out each other's names. I told him mine was Mina and he said his was Vincent. He told me how he ended up in Minecraftia and how even when Herobrine gives him the option to leave, he plans to stay. We lost track of time pretty quickly, and filled our pack in no time. It was a short trek to the surface, and I had to stop and marvel at the elevator, unsure if I wanted to get on. Eventually we made it back to his smithy, and the sight of it took my breath away. The room was huge, housing five six block tall forges and an abundance of Crystal chests, allowing me to see the shining metals inside. Vincent had me empty my ores into a chest so he could take inventory.
"Let's see," he said to himself, "we got a large of abundance of basic ores like Iron, Redstone, Diamond and the like, but there is a large amount of specialty ores like Dark Iron, Titanium, and Uranium, and I've never used the last two. This should be interesting!" He placed the remaining ores in the chest and took me over to one of the forges and put me to work. It's wasn't long until the two of us got into the groove, working away as sparks flew from our burning forges. We discovered a couple new alloys as we worked with the Titanium and Uranium, much to Vincent's joy. I couldn't help but feel at home here, where my desire to become an amazing smith actually helped. With a smile toward Vince, I worked harder, not out of a desire to prove my skill, but out of the will to stay.
-Chapter 9 End-
I hope you all are still enjoying my story! Thanks for the reviews and all the support!