Chapter 2: Gathering
He broke the shovel on the way down.
The good news was he had three, initially. After he took the bed and the torch back, he began digging his way back down. Several times, for whatever reason, he had a sense of dread that he was about to fall and die at any moment. Regardless, he made his way back down to the ground, and pulled out his sword. He wasn't taking any chances on his second day. He needed to gather resources. But what would he have to start?
He decided to recap on his inventory.
He found torches, and two wooden pickaxes.
Needless to say, mining was his first priority.
He wandered toward the cave. He didn't notice it before, but there was a waterfall where the ravine crashed into the canyon side. A thing of natural beauty. He admired it from his perch, just before the cave entrance. It was a rather peaceful few moments. But of course, something was watching. Well, two things. They were both green. They had no arms…
...and they had four legs each.
He noticed them out of the corner of his eye at first. One of them was a bit farther off staring into the distance, but the other one was approaching him. He didn't like the looks of it. He got his sword. They were both close to the edge. Sure, the weird green thing with strange black facial features looked harmless, but he couldn't take any chances. It was a few blocks away from him now. He could've taken it in any direction.
Of course he tried hitting it with the sword.
Now, it didn't kill the green thing. No, barely a scratch. However, it DID toss it over the cliffside, sending it to a rather painful demise. He saw as the creature hunched over, and disappeared in a puff of smoke. He could've sworn there was an aura of death around it. It looked red. Unfortunately, the thing's untimely demise got the attention of it's friend…
He began to panic. The other green thing was surprisingly fast, and it had a blue like aura about it. Logically, he had a choice: see what this thing could do, or die by cliff fall. When it was close, it began to make a hissing sound. His brain kicked into overdrive. He ran for the cliffside. His feet were off the ground, but the thing decided it was tired of hissing. And then?
BOOM!
His vision darted. He was barely holding on.
He crashed into the ravine. It took all his focus just to paddle to shore. Never had he been so terrified. He realized he was at the place where the first thing fell. What was it called? He wanted to know the name. Those things were dangerous.
...Creeper.
He flinched. He felt like he had a headache. Since when did he know the name of random creatures? Well, save for sheep and the like. It didn't matter. He knew they were called creepers, and that was enough for him. Then he noticed something falling from the ledge. It wasn't gonna hit the water...but it wasn't gonna die either. It was another creeper.
He stabbed it the moment it landed, and watched it disappear into smoke.
He then noticed it dropped two lumps. He picked them up. They smelled vaguely metallic and… explosive. He noticed the first creeper dropped only one lump. He took that one, too. Now what was this called…? Oh, wait, no-
Gunpowder.
He smacked himself in the face. He knew things he should've had no intent on knowing, but here he was, knowing them anyway. He shoved the gunpowder down to his inventory, as strange green orbs began to gravitate towards him. He had a similar situation with the sheep from yesterday. Regardless, he then realized there was stone in the canyon face. He only mined 8 pieces yesterday, but he crafted them into the furnace.
Wisely enough, he decided to get more stone.
While he was mining into the canyon face, he noticed some of the stone had black flecks, and others had grey flecks. He had already gathered plenty of cobblestone, so he decided to try his luck. He began mining the black fleck stone, and to his surprise, several lumps of coal fell forth. Hallelujah, no more burning wood! But then he came across they grey flecked stone. It took an awfully long time for his wooden pickaxe to mine it out, but finally, it cracked. But it yielded no precious materials. It just withered into dust, and disappeared like it never existed.
He needed better tools.
He pulled out his crafting table, as well as two leftover wood blocks. He turned them into sticks, and then took out 9 cobblestone blocks. After a few moments, he had a shiny new set of stone tools. He eagerly tested out his stone pickaxe. It harvested the grey flecked block, but it felt useless… at least, for now. Then he remembered: what time was it? He had been so lost in mining, he forgot all about the time! He needed to get back to the surface! He quickly scrambled out of the "cave." It was still daylight, thank heavens! Then, he noticed another mineral in the canyon face, within a different cave. There was another creature beside it. It looked quite different from a creeper. For starters, it's body was primarily horizontal. It was small, dark blue, had eight legs, and deep red eyes.
He could already tell the thing was dangerous. He needed to kill it.
He was tempted to use his new stone sword, but he figured it would be best to get the old weapons out for the count. Other than that, he needed to come up with a better strategy than with the creepers. The high ground seemed like a safe bet. He slowly made the climb out of it's way at first. Then he slowly got closer. The creature's back was turned, so it would be easier to strike a hit. He gathered his courage…
...and swung his sword.
The first and second strikes landed perfectly. But the creature got smart, and jumped on this level. It lunged for him, and bit him on the leg. He stumbled back in pain. He could feel himself fading… No. He couldn't. He struck his sword one more time. The creature was hit. It died. And what did it leave? Two pieces of string.
He picked it up begrudgingly. Stupid Cave Spiders…
He decided to just mine the gravel. As he was mining, he realized that every now and then, the gravel would rarely become flint. That could be useful down the line. He also noticed that when he broke the block below the gravel, it would fall. Something most blocks didn't do. He finally finished when his pickaxe broke. Luckily, he had another one. He checked his inventory. He had 36 blocks of gravel, and 4 pieces of flint.
He hoped it was worth it.
Nightfall was several moments away. He needed to make his dirt pillar again. But first, he needed to get back to the clearing. He swam up the cascading waterfall with some minor struggle, narrowly losing his breath. He was about to hop down to a minor lower ledge just before the clearing, but he noticed something. Another cave spider… no. This one was bigger. It had a blackish-greyish color scheme. But it still had those eight legs and deep red eyes…
This was a regular spider.
It was blocking the entrance to the clearing. He needed to get past it. But nightfall was close, and the thing looked more hostile than the cave spider did in daylight. He only had one choice. He pulled out the wooden sword. He lunged for the spider with unsettling fury.
It only got one bite in before it's demise.
One of its eyes and another piece of string was all that was left of it. He rubbed his neck. He was so sore and… *grumble* hungry. He didn't have much food. He wasn't so keen on eating his raw lamb chops; that could contract food poisoning! Then he remembered the first thing he did when trying to make sense of the world: punch oak trees. He checked his inventory. Lying within the far reaches were several beautifully glossy red fruits. He scarfed them all down, which, to his surprise, satisfied his hunger… for the time being. He suddenly began to feel better from his battles. But he knew he would have to start thinking long term if he wanted to survive. Three chickens were unfortunately in his line of sight…
Feathers and raw chicken joined his inventory.
He made his way to the clearing, and he began to repeat the process he did the night before. The sounds of the night weren't so noticeable from high above. He laid the torch at the top, set up the platform to place his bed, and crawled under the blankets. The world was so dangerous. He was surprised he even survived today…
...but it wouldn't be too bad if there was some passive company…