Chapter 14: Red Maze

After leaving the bridge in the extreme hills biome, the next destination couldn't possibly surprise them.

Of course it proved them wrong. After crossing the desert for an eternity, the group noticed the sand was starting to change color. It went from being a pale yellow to an orange red. "Red sand," Texik whispered. "But, that means-" added Madison. The group continued making their way, until they came across the edge of the plateau. The entire landscape in front of them was filled with red sand, some cacti, and plenty of dead bushes.

The group was in a mesa biome.

Texik once again gained his signature "there's riches here" look. "What is it this time?" Jewel asked reluctantly. Texik took out a pickaxe and a shovel. He screamed at the top of his lungs, "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!" His parrot followed him as he dashed toward the mesa, his eyes glazed with greed… again. "Crud," said Pickaxe. He didn't want a repeat of what happened at the extreme hills. Madison told him the entire story. Did Texik's greed know any bounds?

Probably not now, because he had already carved out a massive crater in one of the mountains.

"YES! GOLD! PRECIOUS GOLD!" Texik was laughing like a maniac. Not a good sign. Apparently, a lot of gold ore was concentrated within the mesa biomes. No wonder Texik was obsessed. But they still had a long way to go before getting to Jewel's village, and there was no way ALL of this gold was coming along. "NO! FOOLS! I CAN COMPACT IT!" screamed Texik, trying to claw his way out of Madison's restraint. "Sorry, buddy," said Madison, "No can do." Oh boy, thought Pickaxe. There had to be some sort of compromise here. Did Texik say he could compact the gold?

He was willing to give it a shot, but the sun was starting to set.

Wisely enough, they used Texik's crater in the mountainside as their base of operations. Having established a suitable shelter, while everyone else was asleep, Pickaxe and Texik stayed awake. Pickaxe wanted to figure out how Texik wanted to compact all the gold he collected… "It's quite simple, actually," stated Texik, adopting a professor-esque persona. "You see," he continued, "After smelting the gold into its ingot form, I can place nine of them on a crafting table to create… a gold block!" Texik held up his gold block with pride, his parrot squawking with approval. "And when we need the ingots back, simply place the block on the crafting table again!" Texik stated, placing the block on the crafting table and having it revert back to nine gold ingots.

Pickaxe was impressed. That actually could come in handy later.

Upon waking up the following morning, the group broke down their temporary shelter, and continued their way through the mesa biome. The red sand would take a little getting used to. Oh, and also the terracotta blocks. There were creepers roaming about, as well as the occasional armored zombie or skeleton. Madison killed them all. Eventually, they stopped roaming when they came across the mountainside. There was something weird jutting out of the side of the mountain.

An above-ground mineshaft.

"Wow," muttered Texik. The mineshaft beckoned the group to enter. "Untold riches…" whispered Madison, obviously drooling at the sight. "We're going in, aren't we?" questioned Jewel. Pickaxe nodded. The group inched closer to the entrance. It was lit up with torches, a welcome sign. Within the first room was a dirt floor and a rail system leading deeper into the mineshaft. On top of that, there was a minecart with a chest inside.

Pickaxe got to it first.

It was a good haul, too. He found another glowing book (Jewel said they were called enchanted books), some strange blue minerals… lapis lazuli, and a name tag. Wait… a name tag!? Perfect! "I believe you were looking for this," gestured Pickaxe, handing Texik the unexplainably rare item. "..." Texik couldn't say anything for a solid five minutes. Then he and his parrot started bouncing off the walls and into the mineshaft.

Luckily, they caught up to him before he got lost.

Unfortunately, Texik figured out that in order to properly use a name tag, they needed to rename it using something called an anvil. Depressed, he sulked his way on into the cave, the others following out of pity. Eventually, they came across another minecart with a chest. Texik was the first to get his hands on it. Inside, he found a golden apple, an iron pickaxe, and an iron ingot.

"Hmph… lucky stiff…" muttered Madison.

After some time exploring the caves, the group was separated down the corridors. Texik decided the best course of action was to mine in the direction he believed Jewel was last heading with the compass. On the way, he would stuff his pockets with gold ore all the while. Meanwhile, Madison would be left to strike out cobwebs, kill the occasional wandering monster, and wander down long corridors and staircases. And as for Pickaxe and Jewel?

Yeah… not so monotonous.

Pickaxe had just walked up a corridor into a room. It was filled with cobwebs. There was also this weird block in the center of the room. It radiated a sort of… ominous feeling… monster spawner. That didn't sound good. What monster did it even spawn? He got his answer through a puff of smoke. It was one of the few mobs he actually hated with a burning passion. It was a cave spider.

He killed the thing in two strokes.

But then more cave spiders began spawning. They seemed unaffected by the cobwebs, much to Pickaxe's chagrin. If only he could stop the multiple onslaughts of the murderous little beasts… wait… Okay, he had a plan. But he was going to require some sheers. With some minor struggle, he managed to cut through the cobwebs surrounding the monster spawner, fending off the cave spiders all the while. He then pulled out his trusty pickaxe, breaking the mob spawner within seconds. After killing the rest of the cave spiders, he started making his way out of the cave. All those cobwebs, though… they COULD be useful.

Jewel, meanwhile, had a rather surprising trip of her own.

It started out innocent enough. It was simply a minecart with a chest. She broke it so that she could get the materials in one fell swoop. She got melon seeds, some redstone, and a few diamonds. "This could compensate for making them worry sick…" she muttered. She probably had the village in a panic. Which reminded her… SHE WAS WASTING TIME! She had to get out of this mineshaft! But how to do it? She looked at her newly acquired minecart. She placed in on the track, and hopped inside.

Once it got a good start, things started going downhill, ironically enough.

The wind was breezing past her as she zipped through the rails. Every so often, she would run into a hostile mob, and would have to divert it elsewhere in the tunnel. It really wasn't a pleasing experience. As Jewel continued down this terrifying rollercoaster, she had the fortune of running into something. Well, someone. "Jewel?" asked a startled Madison, before being pushed aside by the speeding minecart. While Madison gave chase, Jewel silently prayed for the ride to be over. Luckily, the railway stopped just before the exit, where Pickaxe was waiting. "Any trouble?" he asked. Madison and Jewel both gave him death glares.

At that moment, Texik and his parrot emerged on the other side of the mountain, literally 3 blocks away from the group.