AN: What's this? I cranked out a chapter in only a week? MADNESS!
In truth, I just have a clearer, tighter schedule for Cobb's group's half. Got a lotta ground to cover, though, so let's get right to it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Minecraft. If I did, I'd have the Warden drop a Sonic Boom Cannon.
Chapter 215
Nerds of a Feather
[Lenz]
We were able to locate Baltic and the other Paragons with minimal searching. Milstatt was small and the streets were clear of Testificates by nightfall. The only large group of Crafters still out were the Paragons. I introduced them to Ines and let them know about her offer, which Baltic accepted. Not like he had a choice. Milstatt had no inns, as Baltic was quick to discover. He also found out the only horses in town had been loaned to the hero Lady Trish and her less important male companion. Unless we ran into fourteen wild horses on the road, we would have to walk to the Cadboro Bridge.
Point was, we accepted Ines' offer and joined her expedition group in the lighthouse. With permission from the mayor, they had dug out the floor to extend the space it provided. It was a basement, but they furnished it with wooden planks and tables to give it a more comfortable air. There was plenty of room for the fourteen of us as well as Ines, her two Crafter companions, and one elderly Testificate.
"There we are." Ines and her two companions set some bowls of beetroot soup down for everyone to enjoy. "I know it's not luxurious, but the farmers just harvested the beetroots for these. Dig in!"
Only a few Paragons politely awaited her prompting. Most of them started pouring the food down their throats. Cobbert and Heather were the exception as they were already asleep. Cobbert wisely kept his carved pumpkin on so as not to be recognized by Ines' less than understanding company.
"So..." One of her companions - Arwen - started. "Ines tells us you're her pen pal. From the college?"
"That is right." I nodded, taking off my dragon head while in their company.
"And..." His eyes strayed to the armored Paragons and the Jibberwoman huddled in the corner. "These are your friends? Are they alumni like you?"
I wanted to lie and say yes, but it would be too easy to prove they were not college alumni. They would be unable to answer the simplest question about redstone. Better to tell a half truth. "They are my traveling companions. They protect me from threats."
"Escorts, then." The other of Ines' companions - Belenzia - speculated. "Explains why they look so tough. What we wouldn't have given to have people like them while we were exploring that mansion..."
"The Woodland Mansion." Trenay caught on immediately. "You were there? I heard some nasty rumors about that place."
"I'm sorry to say they're true." Belenzia shook her head. "The things we saw in that mansion..."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Ines talked them down before inclining her head towards me. "Lenz here was just about to regale us with the story of how he came into possession of an airship."
"No way!" Arwen leaned forward, slamming his palms on the table. "You actually flew one!? What was it like? I've always wanted to - please, if you would let me pilot it for just a few minutes-!"
"He doesn't have it anymore." Dwight groused. "He lost it... after he stole it from some innocent, good-hearted, religious people."
"Awww!" Arwen sank back in his chair, disappointed.
"Still, you got to feel what it was like." Belenzia leaned forward. "Feel like describing it? I only have my dreams as reference."
I smirked at the invitation and began describing the experience of piloting the Asmodeus with vivid detail. As I did, I came to realize that Arwen and Belenzia were the same as Ines and me. We were all redstone engineers captivated by the innovations of the red dust. I did not have to dumb anything down or avoid tangents that discussed the technicalities involved. I could speak my mind and be stimulated in turn by their thoughts and ideas. Actual redstone discussions and debates like back at the college, and the three of them showed genuine interest in everything I talked about, raising interesting ideas of their own.
We talked about countless things - not just my adventures with the airship - and I came to learn a few new redstone tricks that had resulted from some of the Bounty Days, as well as some that were drawn from the engineers' own experience. The Paragons tried to be polite and listen to their hosts, but it was clear they could not follow a hint of what we were saying. Dwight, Perry, Shroud, Doyle, and Wing gave up and went to bed first, then Aurand, Luis, Trenay, and Witige. Z7 lasted the longest before I noticed her lightly snoring in the corner. Only Baltic stuck it out, though he stopped halfway when he received a map message from Carys' group.
"Well, better to have piloted a ship than to never pilot one at all." Ines spoke wisely after I had told her it got stolen. "I can't even imagine what it must've felt like."
"I'm gonna fly one someday." Belenzia vowed. "You've just reaffirmed my drive, Lenzington. I only pray it's as nice as that Asmodeus. She sounded sleek."
"Youuu knooow whaaat's alsooo sleeek?" The elderly Testificate suddenly spoke, having remained quiet while listening all this time.
"Er, no, what?"
"Liiightning."
I blinked at the response while Belenzia and Arwen just rolled their eyes and hung their heads wearily. Ines got up and patted the old Testificate on the wrist. "Very good, Professor. Now let's get you to bed."
"I'm nooot tiiired." The old Testificate tried to shake Ines off. "Buuut heeere's a fuuun faaact abooout liiightning. Liiightning striiikes caaan caaause laaasting syyymptoms liiike," he wetted his lips, "meeemory loooss, diiizziness, weeeakness, nuuumbness..."
"Okay, yeah, thank you Professor Fulgur." Ines herded the old Testificate towards the beds. "You must go to sleep now. It's late and there are Mobs about. You can tell us more about lightning in the morning."
"I'll hooold youuu tooo thaaat, Idaaa."
"My name is Ines."
"Suuuch a niiice giiirl." Professor Fulgur gave a tired smile. "Juuust remeeember whaaat I saaaid abouuut avoidiiing liiightning striiikes." He yawned as he was put to bed. "I'd haaate fooor youuu tooo geeet struuuck..."
He soon dozed off and Ines wiped a hand over her face before rejoining the table. I looked over her head at the slumbering Testificate.
"He's Professor Fulgur." Ines answered after seeing my curiosity. "He's the senior - and I do mean senior - meteorologist at the Weather Institute. You know the one on Blitz Peak? He works with all the other Testificates to predict storms and study them. Fair warning, he has this tiring habit of quoting lightning facts in the most absurd of tangents. We could be talking about soup and he'd just bulldoze into the conversation with a tidbit about lightning. The first few days it was fascinating."
"Now it's just annoying." Belenzia propped her chin up by her hand.
"Why do you put up with him?" I asked, puzzled. "Is he not part of your expedition group?"
"He came down here to investigate some lightning phenomena off the coast and to the south. Something about unexplained and repeated lightning bolts...? He's not part of our expedition."
"But he is taking residence in this lighthouse." Ines filled in. "He and the mayor are friends and he offered him this place to stay before he moves on to check his lightning phenomena." She shrugged. "So we're bunk mates."
"Only until the Screw Divers do what we paid them for." Belenzia commented. "Then we can bid goodbye to grandpa and check out the outpost ourselves."
"Outpost? What outpost? Also, what was that other name you mentioned?" I asked trying not to laugh.
"Yeah, yeah. We know. The Screw Divers." Belenzia ran a hand over her face. "I'm embarrassed to rely on anyone called that, but beggars can't be choosers and they helped us out with the Woodland Mansion. Apostolos and that trident are no joke."
"Right. The Woodland Mansion." I caught on. I had talked most of the night but now it was Ines' turn to share. "So what happened at the mansion? How do these... Screw Divers factor in?" I could hardly say the name with a straight face.
As Ines considered where to start, Baltic deposited his map back into his belt. He opened his mouth to relay the message, but then he noticed the rest of the Paragons were sleeping and reconsidered. Instead, he excused himself from the discussion and went to bed. It was just redstone engineers awake, and not one of us showed signs of exhaustion. Talking about redstone and our adventures was like caffeine to us.
"Alright." Ines took a deep breath. "I research redstone in structures. Same with Belenzia and Arwen. We all study the same thing. Our colleagues in the expedition did too." She added somewhat somberly. "That field doesn't just extend to building household traps, giant talking heads, and burglary alarms. We also study existing structures - whether they predate Crafters like the jungle and desert temples, or they result from a Bounty Day like the mansions or, more recently, the outposts. Investigating them gives us new ideas for redstone traps, so we take a look whenever we can."
"Our latest research assignment was funded by a wealthy tycoon wanting us to investigate the recently spawned mansion in the Woodland Forest. The mansion spontaneously appeared following the third Bounty Day, and our benefactor prepared an expedition force of no less than fifty Crafters - including armed combatants to protect us - to investigate the mansion, document our findings, and bring back anything of worth. Arwen, Belenzia, and I, and forty-seven brave Crafters ventured into the mysterious mansion." She gestured to herself and her two companions. "We're all that's left."
My breath stilled before I looked down in mourning. Forty-seven Crafters. How many of them were college alumni excited for their first ever research opportunity? Any one of them could have been me, and it saddened me to think of so much intellect and potential leaving the world.
"...What did it?" I found my voice. "Were there traps?"
"No traps. Just Mobs." Arwen explained. "The inside of the mansion was dark. The hallways had minimal lighting and the rooms themselves were pitch black. A veritable spawning ground for Mobs. Upon reaching the front gate, we were beset by Zombies, Endermen, Skeletons, Spiders, Creepers, Witches. All the usual stuff. It was a challenge, but nothing our armed guard couldn't handle." He rubbed the bridge of his nose as he recalled what happened next. "But those other Mobs..."
"Other Mobs...?" I asked, my eyes straying to Cobbert slumbering peacefully in his bed. He would want to be awake to hear this. I would have to have Ines tell him later.
"There were Mobs the likes of which we'd never seen." Belenzia said. She had a far-off glaze to her eyes, her mind recounting something truly horrifying. "Sickly, gray-skinned Testificates with superior speed and lethal axes."
"A robed, gray-skinned Testificate that could summon... crocodile spikes and... ghostly pixies with iron swords..."
I straightened up, my gaze snapping between the three silently asking if what they were describing was real. They shuddered at their descriptions, not elaborating one word further.
"We weren't expecting that kind of resistance." Arwen said shakily. "We weren't expecting... things beyond our imagination." He shook like a leaf, hugging himself.
"It was bad." Ines summarized. "We learned more about the Mobs as we went, but every piece of intel cost us people. Our armed combatants were whittled away, then the engineers. We kept fleeing those cursed halls to regroup and return back, but..." she sighed, "in hindsight we should have abandoned the expedition the second we encountered those new Mobs. We had to supplement our combatants with the Screw Divers - a traveling guild who just so happened to be passing through. We paid them to defend us, and with their help we managed to explore most of the mansion before calling it quits. Our benefactor wasn't pleased, neither by the lack of discoveries, nor by the loss of life."
"I am so sorry." My heart bled for their loss.
"So are we." Belenzia sighed. "But... we all knew there was a risk." She shrugged. "Explorers are always venturing into the unknown. Anything can happen. This time it did."
There was a long silence as Belenzia pulled a glass bottle of something from her backpack and drank deeply. By her lightened expression, it was probably alcohol.
"...Did you make any redstone discoveries?" I asked in an attempt to switch topics. Ines was eager to take the opportunity for what it was.
"Not much. Most we could inspect was what appeared to be a redstone jail cell in one of the rooms." Ines pushed her glasses up with one finger. "Cobblestone cells, metal bars for windows, and an iron door triggered by a lever. Nothing like what we saw at the desert and jungle temples."
"Huh. Not even traps?"
"No traps."
"The Mobs were traps enough." Belenzia remarked. "If those things served as the mansion's defenses, they did a good job."
"But what were they even defending it for?" Arwen inquired. "The most valuable stuff we found were enchanted golden apples, diamond armor, and some enchanted books. Those are fine and good, but not worth the level of resistance we encountered."
"We didn't scan the whole building." Ines reminded. "Whatever secrets that building is still hiding, we need a massive armed force to clear it out properly."
"I say we raze the place to the ground. To hell with those Mobs." Belenzia took another swing of Mundane Potion. "Burn it all."
"You want to be like that arsonist, Keen? You'll burn the entire forest while you're at it."
"So it was all for nothing." I said sounding pessimistic.
"Yeah." Ines sighed. "Aside from discovering three new Mobs and getting to name them - since we were the only ones to survive - the entire thing was a giant waste of time... and life."
"And the outpost? What of that?"
"Oh, right." Arwen realized. "Did you come to Milstatt from the north?" I nodded once. "Then you must have seen the outpost with the dark oak roof." I nodded again, my eyes widening behind my tinted glasses. So that was what we saw coming in. The outpost. "Those structures have been cropping up all over Minecraftia since the latest Bounty Day. We call them outposts."
"It's another structure we want to investigate. This one much smaller. However, we still don't know what we're running into." Ines explained. "We want to be cautious. Gray-skinned Mobs have been sighted in the area, some even going so far as to terrorize the villagers. We sent the Screw Divers ahead to clear it out."
"You think they will be okay?"
"We saw Apostolos in action. He's good." Belenzia nodded in approval. "We also warned them to be cautious. Attack from a distance - that's the best strategy we got against those new Mobs. We paid them half already - they're loyal and won't run with the money. They'll get the job done, then come back to collect. After that, we'll check out the outpost for any redstone."
"Good. Better safe than sorry." I nodded. "Do you find the Screw Divers to be condescending at all? Like do they accuse you of being weak?"
"They don't bully us if that's what you're asking." Belenzia said. "It would be hard to when their stupid name provides us with so much ammo to use against them." She smirked.
"They're professional." Arwen clarified. "They respect our money and we respect their strength. If we start any animosity, relations will ultimately break down. Fact is, we owe them for helping with the mansion."
So it was not like my early travels from the Origin to Daymonte. No meathead bullies hoarding all the food and belittling us for cowering behind their bulky bodies. That was good. At the very least, the Screw Divers deserved my thanks for helping Ines and her friends.
"So," Ines drummed her fingers against the table. "Observer blocks. Do tell."
And thus, we began the trade of information. I described the observer block recipe - six cobblestone, two redstone dust, and one nether quartz - and they told me about the new Bounty Day blocks tied to the professions of Testificates. For armorers, a blast furnace. For butchers, a smoker. Cartographers relied on cartography tables. A Cleric used a brewing stand. Farmers had composters. Fishermen, barrels. Fletcher had a fetching table. Leatherworkers used cauldrons. Librarians had lecterns. Masons used stonecutters. Shepherds, looms. Toolsmiths had smithing tables. Weaponsmiths had grindstones.
It was a lot to memorize, and it completely changed how Testificates were classified. The latest Bounty Day had changed them a great deal. I had to wonder what they must be going through with such a change.
What fascinated me more was what Ines, Belenzia, and Arwen told me about lecterns and composters. They demonstrated the redstone capabilities with a comparator and some redstone dust they had on them.
"See, whatever you fill the composter with will change the signal strength of the adjacent comparator. Just like with cauldrons and cakes." Arwen pointed out. "Same with the lectern. Try it out."
"INCREDIBLE!" I gushed, flipping Ines' redstone textbook as it sat upon the lectern. The signal strength of the redstone dust advanced and receded as I flipped the pages back and forth. "The page I am on directly correlates to the strength of the signal! Oh, this could mean books and lecterns can be used like keys to a lock. Just set up the redstone the appropriate distance and-!"
"(Lenzington.)"
I looked over to see Z7 rubbing sleep from her eyes and ambling over. And was that sunshine streaming in through the windows? It was already morning. Where had the time gone?
"(Sun's up.)" She said simply. "(Quickdraw training.)"
Quickdraw...? Oh, right. The morning training. I reluctantly got to my feet, feeling more drawn to Ines and her redstone colleagues. Things were just getting good too.
Though, before I could take a step towards Z7, I thought more about the situation. By the sound of things, it would not take the Screw Divers long to clear the outpost; Ines was only going to be in the village for another day at most. Surely training could be postponed for just one day. After Ines left, I would not have anyone to talk shop about redstone. Just thinking of Perry or Dwight or Cobbert trying to follow the complex theories of redstone engineering was a depressing prospect destined to go nowhere. I would never find specialists more stimulating than Ines, Arwen, and Belenzia.
"(A-Actually, Z7,)" her head twitched slightly, "(maybe we can skip the training for today.)"
"(...Skip?)" She muttered emotionlessly.
"(It is just that Ines is planning on moving on soon.)" I explained. "(We can train any day during the coming weeks, but I only have today to spend with my pen pal. Maybe an exception can be made?)"
It was not an unreasonable request. It was practical to prioritize the person I would spend less time with. We had two weeks' worth of mornings to train. What was one day?
Z7 thought differently.
"(A warrior must be diligent. Skipping even one day will affect the gains you've been making. You're still not as fast as me on the draw. You think flaking out on practice will bridge the gap?)"
"(Flak-? I am not flaking. I just want to spend some time with my pen pal.)"
"(Don't question your Mastah! I thought you wanted to get stronger.)" She spoke coldly.
"(I do! But it is just a single day. Can you not take Ines into consideration?)"
"(If you want to give up and drop out, go ahead. But the strong don't get to where they are by being quitters.)"
I felt my temper flare up at those words. Give up? Drop out? Quitter? I had already told my professor that I would not, nor would I ever, drop out. Even Cobbert said it would be okay to quit the Beginners to finish college, but I told him that was not me! Lenzington was no quitter! And now Z7 was accusing me of such a thing? I snapped.
"(What is the big deal!? Redstone repeaters, it is just a day! Why are you acting so uppity about it!?)" Z7 took a step back at the outburst, her curtain of hair hiding her eyes. She kept silent then. No protest sprung to her lips.
"...Lenz?" Ines tentatively asked. She could not understand either of us, but she could tell by the intensity and volume that we were arguing. "Is everything good? What's wrong? When did you learn how to speak like them?"
"It's fine." I turned to assure her before turning back to Z7. She was biting her lip and glancing at the ground. I stayed firm, however, steeling myself with a breath and making my position clear. "(I am going to spend what little time I have with my friend. That is what I am doing today.)"
Z7 jerked her head as if annoyed by an irksome fly. Then she turned on her bare heel and padded out of the basement without a word. I watched her go with a frown. My time did not belong to her. I was justified in wanting to spend a little time with Ines and others from the same background in redstone. Training could wait.
In all the commotion, Baltic had stirred from his sleep along with Trenay and Wing. They all saw Z7 storm away. Baltic looked at me sadly, but I ignored him. I was not Z7's babysitter; why was I held accountable for spending my time with someone else?
"I wasn't aware you could speak their language." Arwen commented in awe. "I wasn't even aware they had a unique language. How did you manage it?"
"It is not hard on paper. The letters are just swapped. Here. I can show you." I took out my notebook and launched into an explanation on Jibberish. How the letters at the beginning of the alphabet translated into the letters at the end. A was Z and Z was A. B was Y and Y was B. C was X and X was C, and so on and so forth. Trenay and Wing, not wanting to hear it, woke up Dwight, Doyle, Heather, and Luis and departed the windmill's basement with the explanation of having business in town. Heather and Luis were noticeably cold with each other. Cobbert woke up next, heard me in the middle of my explanation, and left with Witige and Perry for more endurance training. By the time I was done, the only ones left were Baltic, Shroud, and Aurand.
"Were you talking all night?" Shroud yawned. "You want those Phantoms to get you?"
"Phantoms?" Arwen asked with interest.
"A new Bounty Day Mob. It attacks those that have forestalled sleep for an extended period of time." I explained away. "One day is nothing to worry about, but if you stay up for a week, it is a different story."
"Heeere's a differeeent storyyy."
Oh sweet sticky pistons. Professor Fulgur was awake. The geriatric Testificate hobbled out of bed with shining eyes.
"Liiightning moooves at a speeeed of arouuund three-hundred-miiillion meeeters peeer secooond. Thaaat's theee saaame leeength as threeee Minecraftiaaa's."
Alright to be fair that was an interesting fact. Professor Fulgur probably had a bunch, it was just that Ines, Arwen, and Belenzia had heard them too often to be kept interested.
"That is quite interesting." Ines smiled and nodded, though her eyes looked to mine and pleaded for help.
"Heeere's aaanother leeesser knooown faaact." He continued with a warm smile. "A Testificaaate struuuck byyy liiightning becooomes a wiiitch. A piiig struuuck byyy liiightning becooomes a Zombiiie Pigmaaan. A Creeeeper becooomes a Chaaarged Creeeeper."
"We need to ditch this Testificate." Belenzia whispered to me. "He usually tags along with us when we leave. Any ideas?"
"Professor Fulgur." I spoke kindly, stepping away from Belenzia. "We would love to hear more factoids about lightning, but-"
"Reeeally?" He asked with the same level of elderly hope that could break hearts. Comparators, now I felt guilty. "Nooobody eeever seems to waaant to heeear abooout liiightning."
My idea to let him down gently quickly fell apart. He looked so hopeful that I could not possibly leave him, making him feel unwanted. This elderly Testificate probably loved telling others about his discoveries. He was full of wisdom and experience as the senior meteorologist. Plus, did I not love talking about redstone facts? It was no different with Professor Fulgur.
It would tarnish my honor to leave him with no one to ramble to.
"Shroud and Aurand love listening to lightning factoids!" I promptly threw the two blank-faced assassins under the proverbial bus. I barely registered their confusion as Professor Fulgur turned to them with a twinkle in his eye. Ines, Belenzia, and Arwen caught on to my plan and helped sell the lie.
"Oh, yeah, they're big lightning buffs!"
"It's been their dream to hear all the amazing facts about lightning!"
"You've shared so much of your wisdom with us. We don't want to selfishly hoard it. You're a gift to all, Professor. We'll manage without you."
After that, we grabbed our redstone gear - Ines leaving her redstone textbook behind on the lectern - and we booked it out of that basement. Last thing I heard was the Professor going into another factoid and Shroud shouting "Hold it, nerd-face!"
I did not, in fact, hold it. I let go of the geriatric Professor Fulgur and left to explore further redstone tech with my fellow alumni.
[Trenay]
Doyle knew the village, having visited it before. As such he was able to point us to the only store specializing in fireworks. It was a small shack, unable to fit the six of us that had set out to uncover more. As it was, only Heather, Dwight, and I entered the fireworks shack. Luis, Wing, and Doyle stayed outside. It was a good idea not to put Heather together with Luis right now. The two were still at odds.
We entered the fireworks shack and found a Crafter waiting for us behind a counter. Behind him were barrels labeled for different dyes, paper, gunpowder, and miscellaneous items.
"What can you tell us about these?" I got straight to the point, tossing the dud fireworks onto the counter. These were the same ones given to us by the Scouts, yet they failed to explode either when set or fired from a crossbow. I craved to know how they could be wielded the way Gunnah had used them against Carys' group. Projectiles dealing explosive burst damage could prove invaluable against the Endward Cult. Carys, Anibal, and Jillian deserved to know. Heather and I also wanted the improved firepower.
The shop owner took the dud fireworks in his hand and examined them for a second before he had his answer.
"Firework rockets. Flight duration 3."
"We gleaned that much." Dwight rolled his eyes. That information had been shown on the item. "What does it mean?"
"It means whoever made these rockets doesn't know shit from Shinola." The shop keeper remarked. "Where did you get these from?"
Heather and Dwight looked to me, but I couldn't exactly tell them I got them from SutsCo, AKA the Scouts. I still had that censor. Trying to speak about the Scouts' involvement would only come out as noiseless blanks.
"Someone sold them to me." I settled on. "You saying they sold me faulty fireworks?"
"These ones you brought in were made out of paper and gunpowder only." The shop keeper explained before gesturing to his barrels of dyes. "You want a firework to have color or an effect, you need to combine gunpowder with dyes to make a firework star. Then you wrap that in paper and more gunpowder to make the proper, colorful, exploding firework rocket." He tapped the duds we brought in. "These would only shoot into the sky. The flight duration just means how long it flies for. Paper and one gunpowder is flight duration 1. Two gunpowder and a sheet of paper is flight duration 2. Three gunpowder is 3 - the maximum. Whoever sold these to you either cut corners to cheat you, or else used these rockets for something else entirely."
Dwight and Heather looked dumbfounded trying to find an explanation, but I already knew what these were used for. The Scouts had elytron - or Wonder Wings as they sold them - and used them to travel the End in search of End Cities. They propelled themselves using these very rockets. It was in their best interests to use fireworks that didn't explode and propelled them for the maximum time. That idiot Landon didn't give us defective fireworks. They were just using them differently from how they were intended. I didn't bother explaining this because of that damn censor on my tongue.
"Can they be fixed?" I demanded. "Can you make them explode like proper fireworks?"
"I can't change anything once they're rockets." He admitted. "Fireworks are art. All the fine-tuning must be performed in the preliminary stages, when the firework star is carefully crafted." He smirked while leaning on the counter. "I can tell you folks aren't from Lazuli. Not an artist among you."
Dwight bristled at the insult, but I held him back. The man wasn't wrong. We were fighters. Warriors. What use did we have for art?
Aside from right now, I mean.
"We are inexperienced." Heather admitted. "Completely out of our depth. Can you help us?"
The shop keeper rolled up his sleeves. "Leave it to me." He pushed off the counter and hovered over the barrels. "Just tell me what sort of fireworks you're looking for. You want blue, red, yellow, purple?"
I thought about it for a second. "Light blue."
"Could I get mine in white?" Heather requested.
"Red for me." Dwight decided.
I should probably get some for Lenzington, but I don't know his preference. Gray maybe? Trenay thought to herself while the shop keeper busied himself. She watched him closely, trying to commit the firework-making process to memory. "Go slowly." She said. "I want to know how they're made."
"It's a complicated process." The shop keeper told us. "Pyrotechnicians have to study all the different combinations for firework stars and firework rockets. Some call it more art than science while others say it's more science than art. The simplest ones are straightforward, but the complex ones - using more than one color and a combination of dazzling effects - are the stuff of masters."
"We'd like ones with small boom and big boom." I said as dumb as I could make it.
"...Amateurs. Whatever fireworks show you're putting on will fall flat. Where's the razzle dazzle?" He rolled his eyes before selecting particular dyes and miscellaneous items along with copious amounts of gunpowder and paper. "I'm assuming you can pay?"
I held up a pile of emeralds. "Money is no object."
"It is to me!" The shop keeper went to work.
As we watched him work and listened to him explain fireworks, the shop's door opened up to reveal a worn Shroud and some old Testificate with the name Professor Fulgur over his head. The Testificate was in the middle of talking to Shroud with drawn out vowels before the assassin pointed at us.
"I got to go feed my pet rock, but these guys love talking about lightning. Go!"
Shroud then bolted out of the firework shop and left the geriatric Fulgur to amble towards us with an aged smile. "Sooo, youuu looove liiightning as muuuch as I dooo? Theeen dooo I haaave sooome factoooids fooor youuu."
The hell just happened?
[Cobb]
The endurance sparring session with Perry was difficult to pull off. For one, I had to wear a pumpkin which limited my vision and hindered my combat. There weren't many places to train in Hilstatt, and whenever a Testificate or Crafter saw us they assumed we were trying to kill each other. Witige had to repeatedly tell them this was sparring and that the two of us had it well under control, but guards had still been called in. Eventually, we just gave up.
I still had other things to check out. I wanted to see about getting a Looting Sword. It was a rare enchantment, which meant I needed to use gold weaponry as a better medium. I asked Witige for eighteen gold nuggets from his alchemy supplies and was able to fashion them into gold ingots, then a golden sword. I also dug into my ender chest to dip into my supply of emeralds. Lenz and I had five-hundred leftover from the sales of grass blocks (before Carys stole my Silk Touch shovel). That was our budget. Noman's group had five-hundred between them.
People kept saying the new Testificate trades were worthwhile. One of them was bound to help get me a Looting Sword.
The trades I stumbled across were some of the worst deals I'd ever seen. I was getting gored! Three emeralds per bottle o' enchanting. To put it into numbers, a normal Zombie was worth five EXP and a bottle o' enchanting averaged at seven EXP. If I used every emerald I had on me, I'd get one-hundred-and-sixty-six bottles, which would equate to one-thousand one hundred-sixty-two EXP. Over a thousand EXP. I was currently at level thirty-eight. That much EXP would only bring me up to level forty-three! I could do better taking it off Griefers than wasting all my wealth!
They were also selling expensive enchanted books at a whopping sixty-four emeralds, but none of them held Looting in any tier. Just worthless Smite of Bane of Orangutans. The eyepatch-wearing weaponsmith sold a few enchanted weapons of diamond or iron - at twenty-one to twenty-seven emeralds apiece - but none of them were enchanted with Looting. Even the bookshelves required to properly do high-tiered enchantments cost nine emeralds per bookshelf, the lapis costing an emerald per piece as well. I needed at least three lapis lazuli for the best choice of enchantment. That meant before I could even enchant anything, I would have to waste two-hundred-and-one emeralds for twenty-two bookshelves and three lapis. And if I didn't get Looting, which was highly likely, I would be down a ton of levels and weaker for it.
"Rip-off artist!" I screamed at the librarian before I could stop myself. He flinched as if struck before folding his arms and shaking his nose at me.
"These are the trades. There can be no discounts."
"Come on!" I complained. "These prices for bookshelves are outrageous."
"Bookshelves require wooden planks and books. Books require leather, and paper. More parts make the price go up. You have the nerve to ask for a lower price? Who do you think you are, Lady Trish?"
"I don't know who that is." I said tiredly.
The librarian gasped dramatically. "You don't know our fair Lady Trish? She's the hero of our village, beloved by all of Milstatt. We showered her with discounts and favorable deals. We practically threw expensive items at her feet. Oh, how I yearn for her to grace us with her regal presence once more."
"Hero of the village, hm?" I leaned back, glancing at the door to the shop. "What did she have to do to earn your adoration?"
"She's the hero of the village."
"Yeah, I got that, but what heroic deeds did she do?" I asked again, figuring I could try to do the same to get some of the better deals Lady Trish enjoyed. "Did she repel a Hacker? Stop a Griefer army?"
"Lady Trish is the hero of our village."
I slowly turned back around. "Are you alright? You're saying the same thing."
"I am merely telling you how Lady Trish became the hero of our village." The librarian spoke calmly.
"Okay, how?"
"By becoming the hero of the village."
I scratched my head through the pumpkin. "Lady Trish is the hero of the village." I said, seeking confirmation to this ceaseless loop.
"Yes. Lady Trish is the hero of the village."
"Because she did...?"
"She did become the hero of the-"
"Okay, okay." I waved that reasoning aside. "You claim Lady Trish is the hero of the village, right?"
"It's no claim, outsider. It's fact." The librarian spoke with a bit of an edge.
"She had to do something to become the hero, right?"
"Right."
"So what did she - no, what could I do to become hero of the village?" I asked instead. Hopefully this would break the loop.
However, the librarian wore a puzzled expression. "I don't understand. What could you do...? Nothing. You could do nothing to become the hero of our village. Nobody could do anything to become the hero of the village, for Lady Trish is the sole hero of our village. She has no equal."
My eyes narrowed suspiciously under my pumpkin. I was getting nowhere here.
"Thank you for clearing that up." I spoke nonconfrontationally before leaving for the door. Perry and Witige were there waiting for me, the two having heard the whole exchange. "Is it just me, or was that freaking weird?"
"Yeah. It's like he wouldn't give you a straight answer." Witige hummed. "Lady Trish. That's the woman the village loaned their only horses to. She's not in town anymore."
"Something screwy is going on." Perry agreed. "Let's ask someone else about Lady Trish's accomplishments."
But the next place gave us just as little to work with. The cleric repeated much of the same stuff the librarian said. Lady Trish was a saint. A paragon of virtue. A hero of the village - that phrase came up repeatedly. But she and her less important male companion were only in town a short while and left three days ago. What did they have time to save the village from to be labeled heroes?
It was the same story with the weaponsmith. He said he sold Lady Trish all his finest enchanted weaponry. The fletcher sold her the best tipped arrows, the armorer gave her discounts on his enchanted diamond armor. The woman cleaned up because she was the frigging hero of the village, BUT WHAT DID THAT MEAN!?
Fed up, I blurted out, "Was she always the hero of the village!?"
The weaponsmith looked bewildered. "What do you mean?"
It was just as I asked. It sounded like the Testificates made Lady Trish synonymous with the hero of the village. I wondered since when they made this association. "Was she the hero of the village before she entered Milstatt? Was she ever not the hero of the village? When did she first become the hero of the village?"
"...Lady Trish has always been the hero of the village." The weaponsmith vowed.
"That can't be." Perry shook his head. "There had to be a time when she wasn't a hero. A time before she did anything."
The weaponsmith slammed his palms upon the counter. "Are you implying our fair Lady Trish is something other than the hero of our village?"
"I'm just asking-"
"I think you have a problem with our hero." The weaponsmith hunched over, looking mean. "And if you've got a problem with Lady Trish, I want you out of my place."
"You're kicking us out?" I asked, shocked. They'd refuse us business just for questioning their hero? They couldn't even tell us what she did!
"You can't kick us out! We're paying customers!"
"You haven't bought anything."
"Not at these prices." I shook my head distastefully.
"HEM HEM."
The loud, awkward throat clearing did not go unnoticed. Perry, Witige, and I turned to stare at an iron golem glowering at us through a window. He made a show of smashing his metal fist into his metal palm, the dull clang promising to grind bones to dust.
"As I was saying," the weaponsmith continued, drawing our eyes back, "do we have a problem?"
We quietly retreated from the weaponsmith's shop.
As we walked the streets, however, I stopped to look at the iron golem who had previously been intimidating us.
Maybe he can give us a straight answer.
I beckoned Perry and Witige and the three of us approached the lumbering pile of iron named Ferrum. The golem firmly faced us, his eyes trying to glare us into the dirt.
"WHAT PUNY CRAFTERS WANT?" His voice was rough as gravel, and calling us puny? Were all iron golems cut from the same ingots?
"We, uh, we don't want any trouble." I assured the golem. My nervous smile was concealed by a pumpkin, though I held my hands up placatingly.
"We were hoping you could tell us about Lady Trish?" Witige asked.
"LADY TRISH. LADY TRISH." The golem boomed. He swung a massive arm over our heads as if swatting at a fly. We all felt the displacement of wind, like a bus just blew by. Getting hit by one of those anchor arms would feel the same. "ALL ANYONE TALK ABOUT! LADY TRISH! LADY TRISH! MORE LIKE LADY DO NOTHING!" He paced back and forth, getting worked up. His metal features twisted and crumpled like crushed metal. "TRISH NO HERO! SHE THIEF! ALL SHE EVER DID WAS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF TESTIFICATES! ROBBED THEM BLIND! AND THEY SMILE AS SHE DID IT!" We took a step back as Ferrum threw his arms up in frustration.
"Lady Trish was a thief?" I asked, more confused than ever. "Then... then why does everyone call her a hero? What did she do to get everyone to love her?"
"NOTHING!" Ferrum exploded. "CRAFTERS HERE WILL TELL YOU SAME! DO NOTHING LADY TRISH! SHE TOOK AND TOOK AND DID NOTHING BUT READ STUPID BOOK! THEY THREW EMERALDS AND GEAR AT HER FOR LOW PRICES! SHE NO DESERVE IT! SHE NO HERO! SHE CALLED FERRUM OVERSIZED PAPERWEIGHT! LADY TRISH IS LADY BITCH."
This was definitely unusual. By Ferrum's account, Lady Trish just waltzed into town to the adoration of all without doing anything to earn it. More to the point, her influence continued to linger. The Testificates yearned for her to return, calling her a hero of the village. A hero who did nothing and was rewarded for it. The Testificates couldn't even fathom the idea that Trish wasn't their hero. It was like their brains had been rewritten. The Crafters were okay. Only Testificates were affected.
It was impossible to uncover more without the woman in question, but perhaps Lady Trish found a way to win the hearts of the Testificates and enjoy favorable trade bargains. I just wanted to know how the hero of the village title factored in.
I was broken from my thoughts as a missile in the shape of an elderly Testificate was launched at Perry and I, courtesy of Dwight and Wing. The two Paragons quickly fled back the street they came down with Dwight shouting, "He's your problem now! No take-backs!"
"Weeell, hellooo frieeends." The elderly Testificate named Professor Fulgur smiled genially as if he hadn't just been thrown at people. "Diiid youuu knooow thaaat liiightning caaan heeeat the surooounding aaair to tempeeeratures five tiiimes hoootter thaaan the suuun?"
I blinked. "No, I didn't know that."
"Weeell iiit doooes." He patted my hand. "Wooould youuu like to heeear mooore fuuun faaacts abouuut liiightning, Mr. Pumpkiiin?"
"...Sure I'll hear you out."
[Lenz]
Ines, Belenzia, Arwen, and I gazed eagerly at the observer block beside the tiny sprouts of wheat. We wore big, expectant smiles and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
When the wheat eventually grew half an inch, the observer defected the difference and sent out a redstone signal to the adjoining dust, triggering the redstone lamp.
""""AAAAAAYYYYYY!"""" We cheered enthusiastically, Arwen already writing down what he had witnessed in a personal notebook. The observer block was able to register changes in what adjacent block it was facing and send out a redstone signal. With the proper configuration, they could be set up with a piston to automatically harvest crops when they reached a certain height.
"Hey! Git away from my fields!" A Testificate raged, prompting us to take our redstone elsewhere. We were all trying out new things - sharing our redstone knowledge. It was like our own personal Redstone Fair, and I greatly missed being able to talk like this with fellow engineers. I was afraid my brain might have atrophied from disuse, only to discover it was as sharp as ever and was further stimulated by the intelligent company I kept.
"It's fascinating that observers can detect changes in blocks like this. Their compact form makes them a favorable substitute to the BUDs we depended on in the past. Though I'm sure Professor Terrano would despise."
Terrano was the Professor of BUDs (block update detectors) at the college. There was a combination of redstone that could do the very thing the observer block did, but it was larger. Even the most compact BUD switches were three blocks big. The observer could do it in one.
"It's just streamlined. I wonder if I could..." Arwen took out four slime blocks, two sticky pistons, and crafted a second observer block. He then nerdpoled two blocks off the ground before carefully placing his blocks. Two slime blocks, the observer facing outward, the observer signal connecting to a sticky piston, the sticky piston then connected to two more slime blocks which were adjacent to another observer and sticky piston set up in the exact same format. One block high, two blocks wide, four blocks long. It was a horizontal slab hovering in the air.
"So then... if the slime blocks hold everything together..." Arwen brought out a new block - a random one - and balanced carefully on the floating slab he built. He placed the block on the outside so that the observer would register it. The observer noted the change and sent a redstone signal to the sticky piston, pushing the connected slime blocks out.
Since they were all glued together, that also activated the second sticky piston and pushed the second adjoining observer, which detected a change in the air, which activated the first sticky piston, which moved the whole thing forward again, which caused the second observer to detect a change in the air...
The result being that Arwen was surfing on what could be called a flying carpet. It was self-sustaining, the observers powering it every time it moved through the pistons. The engineer balanced on it with an ecstatic expression. We stood in awe.
"Look at me!" Arwen exclaimed with a laugh. "I'm flying! I'm air surfing!"
It wasn't as fast as an airship (or walking), but it was an infinite, self-sustaining loop that could fly in on direction forever, or at least until it ran into an immovable block or the Border.
"That's so cool!" Ines cheered, walking to keep Arwen in sight. "It's like a miniature airship. The technology is the same as Daymonte's monorails. These are way more compact, though."
"Observers are splendid!" Arwen laughed as he continued to be carried over the village. He grew nervous, however, when he saw he was heading out over the ocean. "O-Okay, somebody stop me."
Belenzia chuckled as she took out some obsidian and ran ahead of the flying carpet's path. She then built a pillar of it up. As soon as the flying carpet touched the obsidian pillar, the loop stopped. Sticky pistons could not move obsidian.
"You could probably ride this thing all the way to Oak Docks." Ines admired while Arwen stepped off. "They could set these flying carpets up like trains or trams. It would certainly save people the trouble of walking the Cadboro Bridge."
Arwen dusted himself off before dismantling his flying carpet. A proud smile adorned his face as he issued a challenge. "Top that."
"Oh, I got a topper for you." Belenzia grinned as she took out a bucket of water, a daylight detector, and a block of soul sand. "Ever heard of a stasis chamber?"
I had not. Neither had Ines or Arwen. We all shook our heads no, making Belenzia grin toothily.
"Oh, then you're in for a treat." She took out a shovel and started digging into the soft grass. Straight down. "Prepare to have your bulbous brains blown. Pshh."
She dug about eight blocks down before placing soul sand at the bottom. Then she placed a few buckets of water above her and used it to waterfall up. She was aided by a current of bubbles emanating from the soul sand. In water, soul sand could apparently shoot you up like a cork. Once she swam to the top, she left the water down, creating a bubbling hole full of water.
It was dark in this light. The water looked deep. An eerie abyss. I subtly stepped away from the hole while Ines and Arwen drew nearer.
Belenzia then covered the hole with a trapdoor (making it more bearable for me) and attached a daylight detector beside it. I tilted my head questioningly. What was a stasis chamber supposed to do?
She opened the trapdoor to reveal the hole of bubbling water and aimed an ender pearl straight down. She chucked it and warped into the water, though she swam up with an annoyed expression before taking out a new pearl and trying again. Again, she warped into the hole and had to swim up.
"Are our minds supposed to be blown yet?" Arwen asked dryly, earning a giggle from Ines.
"Gimme a minute!" Belenzia snapped with a third pearl in hand. "It doesn't always - There! Got it!"
The third time she threw an ender pearl, she didn't warp because the pearl never made contact with the sides of the hole. Instead, the bubbling current pushed the pearl to the top of the water. There it bobbed.
"So what?" Ines asked.
"What you're seeing now isn't an ender pearl as a floating item." Belenzia explained patiently. "This ender pearl is actually an entity floating in water. It became a projectile the moment I threw it down, yet it continues to exist as a projectile since it has yet to contact anything. It remains suspended in a sort of entity stasis."
My eyes widened behind my tinted glasses. So that was the reason for the bubbling current. It pushed back against the pearl's downward momentum, slowing it down, then making it float to the top and bob at the water's surface. More importantly it existed as an entity - a projectile. Like if I shot an arrow into the pool, it would slow, then bob back up to the surface and hurt the first person that touched it. It was stuck in stasis, and suddenly the machination's name fit.
Once I figured that out, the purpose of the daylight sensor and trapdoor were easy.
"Once the time changes to night, and the daylight detector detects no light," I reasoned, "the trapdoor will close on the ender pearl - wait, are you telling me the warping properties still hold?"
"Yup!" Belenzia was smug as she slapped a hand on the daylight detector. "It remembers I'm the one that threw it. Even if I walk away - a hundred miles, a thousand miles - the second it turns to night, the daylight detector will switch off, the trapdoor will shut, the pearl will make contact, and I'll be warped right back here."
I was left speechless. That was amazing. Not to mention it revolutionized travel. If every kingdom had a stasis chamber, and you used maps to communicate like the Paragons did, could you not have someone activate a stasis chamber for a particular someone and warp them across Minecraftia? It would require having visited there at least once, but it was certainly doable.
For example, say I started in Daymonte and set up a stasis chamber with a pearl. Then I walked all the way to Lazuli and set up a stasis chamber there. I now had two chambers. Then I could map message someone in Daymonte to activate my stasis chamber and it would warp me back there in a blink. Then I just reset the Daymonte chamber and send a new map message to Lazuli for them to warp me there. As long as I reset the chambers with a new pearl in stasis, I could teleport between the kingdoms as often as I wished. Comparators, we are talking instant transmission!
The others must have thought the same, for they got on their knees and bowed to Belenzia with reverence.
"We are not worthy." They intoned.
"That's right, peons." Belenzia basked in good fun. "Worship me."
I committed the stasis chamber to memory. The components were not too difficult to obtain, though it would require a trip to the Nether. The deep water was the biggest obstacle, something I would need someone else to arrange for me. However, the device would prove invaluable, especially in cases where my allies needed a quick escape out of a tight spot. If we intended to assault the Endward Cult's Eastern Division in the future, we could definitely use a stasis chamber or two.
"Hey, Lenz." Ines piped up. "That Jibbermen language of yours. How do you say, 'Hello'?"
"That would be... 'Svool'." I remembered. "Also, I call the language Jibberish. Why do you ask?"
"I just wanted to try greeting that friend of yours." She shrugged. "She seemed pretty cold this morning. I'm hoping she'll warm up to me."
"Do not worry about Z7." I dismissed. "She is just upset because I am missing a training. It is nothing you need fret over."
"I don't know. Did you see the way she was glaring at me? Spooky." She shuddered. "Is she interested in redstone?"
"Hardly. She is a fighter." An assassin, I wanted to say. "She has no interest in redstone."
"So what do you guys talk about? Do you even get along?"
"We do. Just not today." I said. "She likes to tell jokes."
"A Jibberwoman that tells jokes. Just when I thought I had seen it all." She shook her head. "What does she train you on?"
"Quickdraw." I whipped out a dagger from my belt. The speed stunned Ines, but I was still no match for Z7's reflexes. If she saw what Z7 could do, she would truly be blown away. "I owe her a lot... but that does not give her the right to tell me when I can and cannot hang out with friends."
"I get it." Ines nodded. "Though, take it from me, women can hold grudges for a loooong time. If you're going to be traveling with her for a while, you might want to think about making it up to her somehow."
"You think?"
"Oh yeah." Belenzia chimed in having heard the whole thing while disassembling her stasis chamber. "Us women never forget. Best to bite the arrow and make it up to her. Otherwise you'll be paying for it the rest of your life. Doubly so if that Jibberwoman is supposed to be your escort."
"Yeah, maybe." I conceded. "You are probably right. I just wish she could understand that my time is not solely dedicated to her schedule. It is my time to spend."
"So apologize and explain your side. In Jibberish, naturally. Gosh, if ever there was a bad time for things to get lost in translation..."
"I will see what I can do. And I shall make sure my translation is pitch perfect."
It did not need to be. After all, Z7 was sensitive enough that she could read intent. If I was candid, she would understand.
"Come on. Let's explore more redstone together." Arwen suggested. We echoed his sentiment. I wanted my fill of redstone. I wanted my brain to be so stuffed with knowledge that I would be content traveling with my non-engineer friends. This was my one chance to let off steam, and I would not go back to the group until I was fully satisfied.
[Outside Milstatt: Outpost]
"Will these pests ever end?" The female Screw Diver complained in between shooting the crossbow wielding Mobs.
The Screw Divers were still attempting to clear the outpost with little success. It did not matter that it was daytime, nor did it matter how many were slain. The gray-skinned, crossbow-wielding Mobs continued to spawn around the outpost with no end in sight. They weren't as troublesome as Vindicators or Evokers, but they certainly had the numbers. If too many grouped up, a Screw Diver would face a hail of arrows.
To help with crowd control, the other male Screw Diver liberated the two caged iron golems. Free, they terrorized the gray-skinned Mobs to their metallic hearts' content, their iron skin resilient to arrows. They whipped their arms like steel girders and flung the sickly Testificates into the air to crash back down or else killing them in a single hit. It made things more manageable, and the Screw Divers were soon raking in EXP.
"That's more like it!" Apostolos cheered.
"We're doing Milstatt a favor." The female Screw Diver shouted. "Can you imagine if these Mobs wandered too close to Milstatt? Hell, they could have been raising an army before we showed up. Then they'd go caging up poor Testificates or else killing them."
"GOLEM SMAAASH!"
"SMASH PUNY TESTIFICATE LOOK-ALIKES!"
"I just wish it were raining." Apostolos remarked as he killed one of the gray-skinned Mobs carrying a banner of their face. "Then I'd let my trident rip - whoa."
Apostolos launched himself back so fast his back slammed into the dirt and slid a few good inches. His extreme reaction was due to the fact that his body was afflicted by an unknown status effect. Dark green particles swirled around his body and a new tattoo had appeared on his arm - this one being one of those scowling, gray-skinmed Testificates, but with blood red eyes and a pair of iron axes. After the fiasco at the mansion, Apostolos and the Screw Divers were rightly wary of any unusual effects or unique attacks where Mobs were concerned.
Apostolos ran his hands over his body, poking and prodding at places, feeling his face, taking a few measured breaths, studying his Health and Hunger Meters, or looking to his companions for any changes he couldn't see.
Nothing.
The banner-waving Mob he killed had dropped the banner, but there was nothing else of note. Apostolos shakily got to his feet and flexed his arms. He checked himself more thoroughly with the help of the female Screw Diver while the iron golems handled the Mobs.
Still nothing. No noticeable change.
The dark green particles continued to swirl around, and the tattoo signifying a new potion effect had a timer that kept ticking down. There was a lot of time he had to wait, but Apostolos didn't feel any different. The only thing of note was a slight chill down his spine. He was never superstitious, but he felt the hairs on his neck raise, like there was some malevolent force looming over him and casting him in its shadow.
"You look alright. Hearts are fine. How do you feel?" The female Screw Diver asked.
"Everything feels normal. Just a little anxious because nothing is happening." Apostolos admitted. "Wait, am I shorter?"
"I don't think so. Do you feel shorter?"
"No."
"Are you hungry?"
"No more than normal."
"So..." She trailed off. "Are you okay?"
"I guess I'm... weirded out? Nervous?" He placed a hand on his chest, his comments sounding more like questions. Was there even anything wrong with him. The tattoo and dark green particles suggested there was, but beside the feeling something bad should be happening, he couldn't say anything was wrong with him. "I think I'm good." He checked his arm again for the tattoo.
What sort of effect is this?
"You sure? We're out of milk, so we can't get rid of it. Ma-maybe we should leave."
"No! No, I'm fine. Really." He assured. They still had a mission to do for those engineers. He put on a cocky smile and tried to banish his unease. How could he call himself the self-respecting guild leader of the Screw Divers if he chickened out over a few silly particles. The effect was likely a dud, or harmless. "We fight on. Clear the outpost!" He raised his trident for courage. "FOR THE SCREW DIVERS!"
"FOR THE SCREW DIVERS!" Even the iron golems cheered along as they all got back into combat.
A gray-skinned Mob had seized the very banner that belonged to the previous Mob that Apostolos killed. The Mob fired its crossbow at the leader, but he spun out of the way, building momentum for when he hurled his trident straight at it. The long weapon skewered the flag bearer and made it explode in a shower of EXP and gear. The flag dropped and Apostolos targeted a different, gray-skinned Mob.
Unbeknownst to Apostolos - locked in the throes of combat as he was - a second tier of the mysterious status effect afflicted his body as soon as he dispatched the Mob holding the banner. Another soon took up the flag and rushed the Screw Diver, dying in much the same way and intensifying the effect to a third tier.
The effect was by no means harmless or a dud. It was Bad Omen, and it would worsen to Bad Omen V before the Screw Divers were finished.
Inventory (Cobb): 1 Carved Pumpkin, 1 Leather Tunic [Dyed Green], 1 Diamond Leggings [Projectile Protection IV], 1 Diamond Boots [Protection IV, Feather Falling IV, Depth Strider III], 1 Fishing Rod {Backlash} [Knockback II, Luck of the Sea III, Unbreaking III] {Weak}, 1 Diamond Sword [Sweeping Edge III], 1 Golden Sword, 12 Cobblestone, 2 Glass, 16 Ender Pearls, 9 Ender Pearls, 56 Glass Bottles, 1 Stone Pickaxe, 1 Furnace, 17 Flint, 1 Flint and Steel, 15 Oak Wood Planks, 3 Sticks, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Clock, 1 Water Bucket, 1 Lava Bucket, 1 Milk Bucket, 10 Coal, 64 Snowballs, 11 Snowballs, 3 Ender Chests, 37 Obsidian, 38 Steak, 2 End Crystals, 9 Rotten Flesh, 1 Book {How to Kill Stuff for Numb Nuts}, 1 Book {Advanced Mob-Slaying}, 1 Book {Mobs of the Nether}, 1 Book {Mobs of the Bounty Days}, 1 Map {Minecraftia}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Ringwood Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Zeppil Entry Pass}, 1 Green Shulker Box {Pocket Box}
Green Shulker Box {Pocket Box}: 64 Eyes of Ender, 64 Chorus Fruit, 1 Potion of Strength II {1:30}, 1 Potion of Regeneration II {0:22}, 4 Nautilus Shells, 55 Blocks of Emerald, 5 Emeralds
[EXP: 38]
Inventory (Lenz): 1 Chainmail Helmet, 1 Dragon Head, 1 Chainmail Chestplate, 1 Chainmail Leggings, 1 Chainmail Boots, 32 Pumpkin Seeds, 1 Iron Dagger, 14 Ender Pearls, 13 Cobblestone, 1 Compass, 25 Gunpowder, 1 Bow, 1 Bow [Infinity], 1 Crossbow, 42 Arrows, 1 Crafting Table, 12 Steak, 1 Stick, 63 Chorus Fruit, 1 Map {Minecraftia}, 1 Book {Notebook}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Daymonte Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Ringwood Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Zeppil Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Akasha Entry Pass}, 1 Red Shulker Box {Pocket Box}, 1 Gray Shulker Box {Pocket Box}
Red Shulker Box {Pocket Box}: 1 Shears, 1 Lever, 9 Redstone Torches, 8 Redstone Repeaters, 3 Redstone Comparators, 18 Blocks of Redstone, 2 Hoppers, 3 Pistons, 2 Sticky Pistons, 1 Book {Airship Piloting 101}
Gray Shulker Box {Pocket Box}: 1 Crossbow, 1 Crossbow, 1 Crossbow, 1 Crossbow, 1 Crossbow, 1 Crossbow, 1 Crossbow, 1 Crossbow, 1 Crossbow, 1 Crossbow, 1 Crossbow, 63 Arrows of Poison {0:11}, 64 Arrows of Harming II, 64 Arrows of Harming II, 63 Arrows of Weakness {0:30}, 60 Arrows of Slowness {0:30}, 64 Arrows of Fire Resistance {1:00}, 64 Arrows of Healing II, 64 Arrows of Invisibility {1:00}, 64 Arrows of Leaping {1:00}, 64 Arrows of Slow Falling {0:30}, 64 Arrows of Night Vision {1:00}, 64 Arrows of Strength II {0:12}, 64 Arrows of Swiftness {1:00}, 63 Arrows of Swiftness II {0:11}, 64 Arrows of Water Breathing {1:00}
[EXP: 21]
Inventory (Baltic): 1 Iron Helmet [Protection III, Unbreaking III], 1 Iron Chestplate [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Iron Leggings [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Iron Boots [Protection III, Unbreaking III], 1 Iron Sword [Sharpness II, Unbreaking III], 1 Shield, 1 Bow, 1 Diamond Pickaxe [Silk Touch I, Mending I, Unbreaking II], 10 Arrows, 3 Brewing Stands, 1 Water Bucket, 28 Bones, 1 Ender Chest, 1 Map {Paragon Minecraftia}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Gold Citizenship Pass}, 20 Emeralds, 38 Cooked Chicken, 1 Lingering Potion of Slowness {1:00}, 1 Lingering Potion of Slowness {1:00}, 1 Lingering Potion of Healing II {0:05}, 1 Lingering Potion of Harming II {0:05}, 1 Lingering Potion of Harming II {0:05}, 1 Lingering Potion of Harming II {0:05}, 1 Splash Potion of Swiftness II {1:30}, 1 Splash Potion of Swiftness II {1:30}, 1 Blue Shulker Box {Pocket Box}
Blue Shulker Box {Pocket Box}: 64 Glass Bottles, 64 Dragon's Breath, 64 Dragon's Breath, 45 Blaze Powder, 42 Nether Warts, 30 Soul Sand, 63 Phantom Membranes, 64 Blaze Rods, 20 Fermented Spider Eyes, 51 Carrots, 51 Melon Slices, 55 Rabbit's Feet, 50 Golden Ingots, 1 Golden Nugget, 55 Gunpowder, 54 Redstone Dust, 55 Glowstone Dust
[EXP: 30]
Inventory (Z7): 1 Diamond Helmet [Protection III, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Chestplate [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Leggings [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Boots [Protection III, Unbreaking III], 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Iron Pickaxe, 32 Cobblestone, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Furnace, 21 Charcoal, 14 Torches, 9 Oak Wood Planks, 1 Cake, 1 Cake, 1 Cake, 3 Pumpkin Pies, 20 Baked Potatoes, 1 Bucket, 1 Potion of Swiftness II {1:30}, 1 Potion of Slow Falling {4:00}, 1 Map {Paragon Minecraftia}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Gold Citizenship Pass}, 1 Purple Shulker Box {Pocket Box}
[EXP: 42]
Inventory (Floyd): 1 Mob Head {Creeper}, 1 Iron Sword, 1 Diamond Helmet [Projectile Protection IV], 1 Diamond Chestplate [Projectile Protection IV], 1 Diamond Leggings [Projectile Protection IV], 1 Iron Pickaxe, 1 Shears, 2 Iron Ingots, 31 Steak, 2 Sticks, 29 Coal, 20 Torches, 1 Fishing Rod, 1 Furnace, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Minecart, 1 Bed, 1 Boat, 1 Diamond Boots [Projectile Protection IV], 16 Gunpowder, 16 Ender Pearls, 2 Ender Pearls, 1 Splash Potion of Invisibility {8:00}, 1 Bucket, 1 Map {Minecraftia}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Ringwood Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Zeppil Entry Pass}
[EXP: 44]
Inventory (Soul): 1 Diamond Axe [Sharpness V], 1 Iron Pickaxe, 62 Iron Ingots, 20 Flint, 12 Gold Ingots, 1 Shears, 1 Milk Bucket, 1 Diamond Helmet [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Iron Chestplate, 1 Diamond Leggings [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Boots [Protection IV, Feather Falling IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Crafting Table, 1 Jukebox, 1 Music Disc {chirp}, 1 Bed, 1 Furnace, 24 Torches, 34 White Wool, 1 Pumpkin Seed, 61 Cobblestone, 32 Jungle Wood Planks, 1 Armor Stand, 11 Steak, 1 Map {Minecraftia}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Ringwood Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Zeppil Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Exter Entry Pass}
[EXP: 41]
Cat-Face the Cat
Christopher Squawken the Parrot
Inventory (Noman): 1 Diamond Sword [Sharpness I], 1 Diamond Chestplate {Severe Shield}, 1 Leather Boots {Bottes Zephyr} [Dyed White], 1 Iron Helmet, 1 Diamond Chestplate, 1 Iron Leggings, 1 Iron Boots, 1 Iron Chestplate, 1 Iron Pickaxe, 60 Nether Warts, 20 Soul Sand, 29 Steak, 1 Flint and Steel, 1 Shears, 10 Cobwebs, 1 Milk Bucket, 1 Water Bucket, 5 Buckets, 1 Bed, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Brewing Stand, 33 Glass Bottles, 4 Packed Ice, 1 Ender Chest, 16 Ender Pearls, 4 Ender Pearls, 3 Phantom Membranes, 61 Glowstone Dust, 29 Gunpowder, 18 Redstone Dust, 61 Blaze Powder, 62 Golden Nuggets, 61 Brown Mushrooms, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Zeppil Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Exter Entry Pass}, 1 Map {Minecraftia}, 1 Book {The Art of Peace}, 1 Enchanted Golden Apple
[EXP: 35]
Inventory (Kalmarin): 1 Diamond Helmet [Protection III, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Chestplate [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Leggings [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Boots [Protection III, Unbreaking III], 1 Mob Head {Skeleton}, 1 Diamond Sword [Sharpness III, Unbreaking I], 1 Map {Paragon Minecraftia}, 1 Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Gold Citizenship Pass}, 35 Cooked Chicken, 39 Apples, 1 Bow [Power I], 36 Arrows, 12 Ender Pearls, 1 Bed, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Furnace, 40 Torches, 31 Sand, 12 Cobblestone, 21 Oak Wood Planks, 1 Water Bucket, 1 Lava Bucket, 1 Milk Bucket, 43 Coal, 1 Clock, 1 Compass, 1 Iron Pickaxe [Unbreaking I], 1 Wooden Pickaxe {Old Reliable} [Unbreaking III, Efficiency V], 1 Book {Meetup}
[EXP: 37]
AN: Got a PS5 Today. It cost a lot, but I'm planning on playing it a lot.
The plot is slowly advancing, and the Screw Divers are unknowingly amassing the Bad Omen effect. It makes sense since nobody has ever heard of the Bad Omen effect.
I liked writing Professor Fulgur getting passed among the Paragons like a game of Hot Potato. Loser has to listen to lightning facts.
Hope you enjoyed Lenz' redstone talks with the engineers. He doesn't really get a chance to gush about redstone since it's an interest nobody in the Beginners or Paragons shares. I like the idea of him finally getting to let his redstone side loose, even though it means leaving someone out.
What I'm setting up is almost here.
FAV. FOLLOW. REVIEW. PM. FORUM. DISCORD. WARM MELTED CHOCOLATE BROWNIE WITH VANILLA ICE CREAM ON TOP.