Chapter 6: Spelunking Adventure
It took some careful maneuvering but Red was able to keep her character up to speed with her mysterious friend. Of course, she wasn't exactly at his speed but she was at least keeping him in her line of sight. Typing to her Herobrine role-player friend, she decided asking for equipment now would be wise. "Hey, you wouldn't mind handing me over some supplies now?"
"I will once we are low enough. We will set up camp from there and I will give you supplies." he replied back almost instantly.
"Why wait? There's monsters in this area too, ya know." Red responded back to his reply, not quite understanding his logic. He didn't reply quite as abrupt but it hardly kept her waiting.
"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of them." He responded while not once glancing back at her as he moved expertly down and through the caves, that progressively were taking them lower to wherever these black opals were hidden.
"Uh okay… but if I get blown to smithereens by a Creeper. It's totally on you, dude."
"You'll be fine. Stop worrying and keep going."
'Well damn. He sure is confident in himself." Red thought to herself irritably as he kept running downwards. Red unlike him had to be more careful, in case she'd end up falling down a hole to her untimely death, that or a monster could kill her without any form of protection situated on her. Hell, she didn't even know how Mr. 'Herobrine' was going to save his own ass. He didn't appear to have any kind of armor or even a sword on him. Either he was way overly confident in himself or he was just plain stupid with a capital S.
The two kept going until Red noticed a zombie charging towards her. She groaned to herself and looked through her inventory for some kind of weapon, yet nothing there was of use. Her last iron sword had broke from the fight with the other Minecraft was about to run over and knock the zombie back with her character's bare hands, but once the zombie got close enough, It didn't quite react the way she'd expect of it. Instead, the zombie took sight of her companion and froze on the spot awkwardly. It glanced at Red and then once back at Hero, before immediately starting to hightail it as quickly as possible in the opposite direction.
"What the..?" Red murmured to herself and raised an eyebrow as the zombie ran away from her and Hero. "Okay, I know creeper's run away from cats, but I'm certainly sure they don't just randomly run away from me. I'm not that weird!" Red talking to herself, made a strange expression and decided to talk to Herobrine again.
"Hey! Did you see that? A zombie just came over and tried to attack me but it ran off when it saw you."
'Herobrine' or whatever his real name was stopped and turned to look back at Red for once. He glanced in the direction of where the zombie was then back at Red. "It must be your game glitching up again. You said it was glitching earlier, did you not?" It took him a second longer to reply that time but he did so rather smoothly.
Red frowned at his reply skeptically and typed back, "I guess that could be it… Still it is beyond bizarre. ?"
"Yes, but this is not a troubling 'glitch'. Now let's keep moving… if it does decide to come back and attack."
"Yeah, good idea," Red responded unsurely. She still found this high up on her 'weird' scale. This dude couldn't be somehow be hacking in her game.. could he? Is something like that even possible? The second that zombie turned to see her Herobrine imposer, it almost looked to panic and sped the other way. It would make sense if it was a mod… But being as this was her game's server, it was all together unexplainable.
Carefully climbing down a giant chasm, Herobrine stopped at the bottom of it and turned to look back at Little Red. His eyes somehow seemed to glow white in the darkness of the cave, it was extremely eerie. "We will set up camp here. I will give you your equipment that you want so badly." he typed which made her blush in embarrassment. She wasn't being that pushy! Was she…?
"That's good! I'm shocked there hasn't been more monsters about. Good thing though! What kind of equipment are you going to give me?" She asked and made up a crafting bench for the two. Putting it down, Hero went over towards it and then looked at her.
"What kind do you want?"
"Diamond!" Red typed back jokingly but was completely taken off guard when he nodded and started tossing her over diamond items, like it was as commonplace as dirt blocks. "Whoa, dude! You didn't tell me you had so much diamond on you!"
"I didn't think it was necessary. I have as much as you need. Will that be enough?" He asked her plainly, like it was no big deal.
"Uh well, if you're sure! Yes, this will defiantly be enough. Beats a wooden or stone sword or something! Thanks a lot!" Red typed back in reply, while her in real life self was sitting there and watching the screen with wide eyes. Why hadn't he given her this stuff back when she trashed those other player's characters? He was such an enigma to her.
"You're welcome. Equip it and I will deal with the camp." He told her and then turned to the stone wall and took out a diamond enchanted pickaxe. Red only stared at him in shock again. He had so much good stuff on him! She wondered what enchantment the pickaxe had on it. She didn't ask but rather did as he asked her of and began putting on her diamond armor and equipping her diamond sword in hand.
He began whacking away at the stone blocks with his diamond pickaxe. She was watching in awe as he hit through it so fast, as if he was playing in creative mode! It didn't take him long at all to make a cleared out area, before placing the ground out of dark oak wood but kept the walls stone. He just added to the makeshift house with his own stone blocks. It came out to look pretty damn nice for a temporary camp.
"Holy shit, you're a really fast builder. It looks really nice though… Mine would look like total shit if I'd have done it." Red joked while Herobrine began putting down another crafting table and stone furnaces (with fully loaded coal capacity) for each other. He didn't reply right away as he seemed to stare at a corner for a prolonged moment. It was very awkward of him. It was like a full minute until he finally placed down two red beds… But they weren't separated.
"It's finished for now. I would hardly call this 'nice' but for temporary purposes. It will have to do." He finally typed back and turned to look back at her character. Every time he turned to look at her, she couldn't help but be strangely entranced by those glowing white eyes of his. It didn't matter if they were pixelated on the screen, they felt real, like they were genuinely staring at her in real life.
"Okie-dokie! You want to rest before we go on?" Red replied and waited for his reply which took way longer than normal from him. Red just continued to stare blankly at him until a short response finally came from him.
"Yes… We can." With that Herobrine went over towards the double bed and then looked up at Red's character in anticipation. Red without a second thought clicked onto the bed and had her character lie down on it. She looked over at Hero and giggled to herself.
"What are you waiting for, silly? Lay down! I promise I won't kick you in my sleep." Red teased him via computer text.
Hero, now staring at the bed, looked back at Red and simply nodded before getting into the bed beside her. Red in real life felt herself heat up with a blush for absolutely no reason. Red felt her cheeks with her hand and furrowed her brows, "Why the hell am I blushing? It's just a game, jeez." Red rolled her eyes at herself and then looked back at her screen as it faded black and then the two began waking up. Red swore she saw Hero's arm around her character's waist momentarily. Maybe, she was just seeing things… That or her game is glitching once again. Just what did she do for her game to be glitching like this!?
"Good morning." He told her and Red laughed aloud in real life before responding.
"Good morning to you! Sleep well? No Creepers Creeping?"
"Funny, Red… but indeed, I slept well. Now let us go deeper into the caverns."
"How much farther do you think we need to go down?"
Herobrine shot out of the camp with her following behind much more slowly, he seemed to be in some kind of hurry! "Under the bedrock." he told her which only made her confused.
"Under bedrock? You can't dig up bedrock…"
"I can."
Red snorted and rolled her eyes, "What? Because you're Herobrine? lol"
"I am and I will." he told her in all seriousness. Red could only raise an eyebrow at him and reply unsurely.
"Er, if you say so." Red was just not understanding this dude? You can't dig up bedrock and he's not actually Herobrine, because he doesn't actually exist. He was defiantly the most serious role-player she had ever met in her entire life.
Leaving it at that, Hero expertly ran through a not so straight pathway around a bunch of lava. Red tired to keep up but she had to slow down, fearing she would accidentally fall into the lava pits if she wasn't careful. Herobrine got to the end and looked back at her, "Here." he told her and suddenly took out a bucket that was full of water. Tossing the water down onto the lava blocks, the blocks began turning into obsidian, making it much easier to navigate through the narrow curvy passage.
"Wow, thanks. You really are handy! You have everything prepared!" Red responded in thanks and finally made it to Hero's side. Hero nodded towards her and once again took out his pickaxe before suddenly beginning to dig down. Red stared at him oddly and decided to ask him what the hell he was doing now. "What are you doing?"
"Digging down."
"… I see that... but I meant to what?"
"Bedrock. We're near." he bluntly as always told her, as he kept hitting downwards really quickly, until he was down in a slight hole. Red only shook her head and shrugged as she watched him dig. She waited and wasn't expecting him to talk again as he was digging but he did.
"Once we are past bedrock, I want you to be extremely cautious. There are many monsters below. They enjoy staying under the depths of bedrock where they do not have to worry about others bothering them. Unfortunately, for them, today that changes. I want you to kill every monster you see. You will want the experience." Hero typed to her quite a bit but it came out as quick as usual from him. Everything he seemed to do was 2x faster than she could bother doing, maybe even faster.
"I'm taking it you've been below bedrock before."
"Many times." he responded and then paused once he saw bedrock. Amazingly, he even had stacks of ladders that he took out and began placing on the side of the hole for her to climb down. "Now come down and keep your weapon out. If you see black opal blocks, mine them, then give them over to me once we are safe of monsters nearby."
"Uh okay." Red climbed down the hole and made a space for her to stand, before standing there and watching again. Hero glanced at Red and then looked down at the bedrock and began mining it with the pickaxe. She highly doubt he was going to put a dent into it but was completely shocked when he did. It took him about as long as it would take to mine stone with your bare hands. Down below was a ominous dark hole that led into a cave.
"Come down." He told her and then dropped down some sand that fell to the bottom. Once it was a safe distance to drop, he jumped down onto the sand and then made a sand block-made stairway down to the bottom. Red as always followed behind him and was in awe at the sights she was seeing. All around her were an abundance of blocks of almost every precious block in the game: emerald, gold, iron, red-stone, lapis lazuli, and even diamond! She also saw some blocks she had never even heard of in Minecraft or seen.
"What is this block? I've never seen this before." She said as she walked over and began mining out a stone block with speckles of bright purple in it.
"Amethyst. There will many others if you haven't seen along the way. The one we are looking for has an array of multiple colors."
"I didn't even know Minecraft had amethyst, other than in mods!"
"Well there is but only below bedrock. Now keep your eyes sharp and don't be distracted by blocks we don't need." Herobrine typed to her and then began rushing through a random pathway, putting up torches to light up the area as he did. Red was slightly annoyed by his constant blunt answers and replies but decided it was best to keep it to herself. He was really desperate to get this black opal. She still didn't understand why he even bothered to drag her along, it's not like she was aiding him in anyway. She rather was acting as a traveling companion that occasionally would be good for a laugh or two. This 'Herobrine' role-player was probably the most accurate depiction of him she had ever seen, he really knew how to act as what Herobrine would probably act like if he existed. He was so dead-set on it, he must have had been practicing his personality for a long time. Red didn't get it, but as long as he wasn't complaining at her, she would just continue to follow like a lost puppy. She already got this far.
Killing a couple monsters along the way, the two Minecraft players searched around for a couple minutes until they came to a gigantic rift, that had lava at the bottom. "I always like coming across these. They're useful to find the abandoned mine shafts and the portal to the End." Red brought up.
"Yes, they are." He responded distractedly, seemingly in thought, he stared off down below and was searching for the colorful stone. Red walked up beside him, even closer, and gazed down. She scanned the bottom with her eyes, that soon widen. "HEROBRINE! Look! On the wall over there by that ledge with the emerald!"
Herobrine turned to where she was talking about and she swore she could almost feel him smirking. "That's it. Good eyes, Little Red." Hero complimented her which made her blush in real life. For some reason, she was really glad to of made him proud of her, in some unexplainable way.
Herobrine began mining away the blocks to make a stairway like path down towards the lava. Taking out his trusty bucket of water, he splashed the lava away into obsidian and then stood at the black opal block.
"Is that hard to mine?"
"No… Just hard to find." He responded and then began using his pickaxe on the block.
Red stood behind him and spoke, "How much do we need, anyways?"
"As much as you would need for a portal to the Nether. There should be enough here as they produce many stones." He told her as he kept hitting away at the blocks that broke away several pieces of the glowing rainbow precious stones of black opal.
"Awesome! That was easier than I thought-" Red was brought out of her speech, when an arrow suddenly pierced through her character, dropping her down a heart. Red gasped and turned to look where the arrow had come from. Hero noticed her pain and swiftly turned to the exact location of the skeleton that was on a high ledge above them.
"He's up there."
"How are we going to get him?! I don't have a bow."
Herobrine didn't reply but just intensely stared over at the skeleton. The skeleton was just about to shoot Red again, but Hero suddenly moved in front of her. The skeleton seeing the sudden wisps of white streaks coming from Hero's eyes, it stopped dead in it's spot. It stared and began trembling as it lowered down it's bow and began running away. Herobrine was frowning before turning back to Red, "It's gone. It ran away… Now let us resurface and make the portal. I will place the blocks down, I just need you to be the one to ignite it."
"Why?" Red asked in puzzlement.
"You want to be apart of this don't you?" He responded a little more slowly than before.
"Well yeah, okay! I guess I need to be some sort of help." Red replied back and chuckled nervously to herself. Hero nodded and went over to take the rest of the black opal before taking out his ladder again and placing it on the wall beside him.
"Come with me. I will give you flint and steel once we reach the top. Then I will make the portal and we will go on from there. Now, are you ready?"
Red stared at him for a prolonged moment and then nodded, "As ready as I'lll ever be!"
"Good, then let us resurface." …."I thank you, Red… This will all be worth it in the end, I promise you that more than anything else."
Red stared at his text to her and made a strange expression, "I trust you." she hesitantly typed back.
Herobrine smiled at her words without her knowledge and then began to climb up the ladder with her right behind him.