Chapter 8: Strike
Finally, he had finished one construction project.
Pickaxe had woken up that morning to see that Jewel and the girl had been talking next to the back window. The garden was coming along nicely, only a day or so left to harvest. The two girls had waved "Hi," to him, before introducing the new girl. Her name was Madison. She was a monster hunter. "More like bounty hunter in my opinion," she stated, "But in most cases, that's my official title." She explained that people would come to her with a request to kill a monster or some other "dangerous" task. If she completed it, the asker would give her some valuable reward in return.
Sounds too easy when she puts it like that, Pickaxe thought.
"So, what do you do?" Madison asked. Pickaxe simply shrugged. "Nothing much, really. Just some farming, some building, some woodwork, a bit of mining… oh, jeez!" Pickaxe dove into his chest. He still had to do some renovations to the cave today! He rather hurriedly gathered his needed supplies: tools, gravel, dirt, cobblestone, and wood. Perfect! "I'll be back later!" he yelled to the girls, darting out of the house to the waterfall.
"Is he always like this?" asked Madison. "Meh," Jewel responded.
He had finished some time after that morning.
He had built a shell of sorts, surrounding the original entrance to the cave. It was in no way meant to be durable; it was comprised of leftover dirt and cobblestone! However, there was hole at the top. Using the multitudes of gravel he had collected, he made a one block pillar ALL the way back to the top. He carefully snuck over the edge, making a crude bridge to solid ground for the time being. He made sure to craft a lot of ladders, which would, in turn support him on the way up. He built walls around the ladder pillar, using more dirt and cobblestone. When he got to the top, he made a quaint wooden shack. He put a furnace, crafting table, large chest, and trap doors in the shack. He made sure to torch nearly everything throughout. Now nothing could get into the mines! For the most part. Now he needed to make a bedroom for Madison.
It was really quite easy.
He simply had to destroy the wall of Jewel's room facing the exterior of the house. He sneaked along the edge to create a 6x6 wooden floor, then he proceeded to create the surrounding walls and roof, making sure to torch the areas throughout. He also made sure to torch the area below her room. He added a bed, crafting table, large chest, and windows to the establishment. He then created a wall to make sure Jewel's and Madison's rooms were properly separated. For the final touches, he added a door, a more stable floor on top of the staircase, and a sign that said "Madison."
He hoped she would like it.
He walked to the bottom floor of the house, where Jewel and Madison were currently conversing in the work room. What they were talking about, Pickaxe didn't know. He did know one thing, however: "I'm going mining. Wanna join?" Jewel seemed eager to join, having been in the house since morning, but for some reason, Madison didn't look as joyful. "Don't have a pickaxe," she said flatly. Jewel blinked. Pickaxe rushed to the crafting table. The best he could come up with was a stone pickaxe (they needed more iron). He handed the pickaxe to Madison, who took it somewhat awkwardly. "He does this sometimes…" assured Jewel.
They left for the mine, and were quite pleased with Pickaxe's wooden shack.
Upon descending into the caves, the trio dispersed in all direction, carrying food, torches, and pickaxes, of course. The found stone, as per usual, as well as some iron, coal, gravel, flint, and gold! They kept mining into the caves, desperate to see if some treasure was waiting to be unveiled.
For Madison, it was lava.
She was mining out a gold ore deposit, when she came across a different cave system hidden behind some gravel. "Great," she muttered. She wasn't a fan of finding different cave systems; they were so random! However, they usually did mean monsters. Unfortunately, she only had one of her iron axes for defense, since Pickaxe broke the other one. That boy was a strange case. She made sure to torch the area, genuinely surprised monsters hadn't spawned here. At least, not yet. She was only a few blocks into the cave, when she came across a strange light. Was someone else using this cave system?
She nearly drowned in lava for not being more cautious.
She blinked. Yup, it was lava. She could feel the heat from there. But where there was lava… there could also be obsidion! Madison scavenged her inventory. Thank goodness she had some buckets! She just needed two though. That would be enough to create an infinite lava source! She went giddy at the thought of summoning a Nether portal, or dumping lava on the stupid zombies and creepers... Snap out of it!, she scolded herself. She still had to get the lava. She scooped it up while humming a little tune, dreaming of the chaos she could create…
For Jewel, it was redstone.
She had just finish mining some gold, and was currently mining more stone (yay, stone!). But then she noticed a strange red dust particle. She looked down. No. It couldn't be! Redstone!? HERE!? She broke into a happy dance. She could find her way home now! And so much more… Okay, backtrack a bit, she told herself. Now she had iron AND redstone, but only if she actually mined the stuff. 4 lumps of redstone. Perfect. But she couldn't use them yet. As much as she wanted to, there was Pickaxe and Madison to think about. They could handle themselves, sure… but the same usually didn't go for herself. Satisfied with her decision, she started making her way back to the entrance…
As for Pickaxe, he also found a treasure of high caliber.
It was just after he had narrowly avoided death by lava. He was actually trying to get back to the entrance, but a certain glint caught his eye. It sparkled like Jewel's right eye. What did she call them again? … Diamonds. Pickaxe had found diamonds. He wandered closer to the precious ore. He could feel its power tingling down his spine. It was all his for the taking. He mined the jewel out with his iron pickaxe. A single diamond fell into his hands. It was a beautiful treasure beyond all comprehension. The good news was, there was more. By the time he had run out of diamonds to mine, he had 10 of them in his inventory.
Jewel would be so jealous.
The trio met back up at the entrance, conveniently so, since nightfall was about. They scurried out of the wooden shack back to the house, slaying a zombie or two. They all caught their breath as they laid against the walls. They needed a better tracking system of time. Luckily, Jewel had an answer. After smelting some golden ore, and using some of her redstone, she crafted three clocks for each of them. Now they could see when night or day was approaching! Madison smirked at her clock before turning in. Pickaxe flipped it coin style before putting it aside. They all went to bed, feeling very proud of themselves.
Tomorrow, they would need to step it up.