Chapter 5: All's Smoked And Done

With Vincent safely back in the Overworld, the rest of the journey was in the group's hands.

Of course, even though Endre knew the route, he needed some time to "adjust to his surroundings" as he put it. "I nearly died because of a ghast and had to rescue Texik from a swarm of zombie pigmen," he explained, "Even though there's no technical day/night cycle here, I at least need some rest…" "Ditto, buddy," Texik agreed, "I'm so tired, I could just place my bed right in the middle of this landscape and take a breather-" "TEXIK, NO-" Jewel tried to warn. To little too late, Texik flumped into his bed.

On the bright side, the following explosion was quite spectacular.

Pickaxe had occupied himself with collecting the various blocks of the Nether. Other than netherrack, which was quite abundant, he wanted to try and collect other blocks. Naturally, the first thing that caught his eye was the glowstone. It clustered at the roof on the Nether, creating downward spikes of the stuff. He immediately began building a dirt tower to where he could mine it. It could substitute for torches one day… After building a small platform, he began mining the glowstone.

Well, glowstone dust.

After repeating the process for several of the glowstone spikes, he was in the middle of tearing down one of his dirt pillars, when two blocks from the ground he heard a slosh. He froze. Only one kind of Nether mob he had seen made that noise. He slowly snuck over his stub of a pillar, only to get knocked off of it by a certain mob. Pickaxe grunted; those magma cubes weren't joking around! He quickly slayed the magma cube, grabbing its magma cream. That was the perfect time for a fireball to be shot off in the distance.

Pickaxe heard a familiar high pitched screech.

Not another ghast…, he mentally complained. Sure enough, he turned his head, only to see the ghast and its disturbing red eyes. He was running before THAT fireball made contact. The ghast shot another fireball, much to Pickaxe's irritation. Out of desperation, he swung around to face the ghast, slashing his sword against its fireball. The fireball returned to its sender, promptly burning the ghast to a crisp. A piece of gunpowder and one of its tears was his reward. He walked over to pick it up, when he noticed another peculiar block on the other side of the lava ravine. The blocks surrounding were magma blocks, but it was still a block he hadn't seen before.

Nether quartz ore.

Sarah had finally scavenged the resources.

Turns out Texik had some blaze rods and nether wart from one of his previous raids. As much as she wanted for Madison to let him have it, she only excused him for one reason: potions. After borrowing some cobblestone from Pickaxe, Sarah eagerly set off to work. A single blaze rod at the top center of the crafting table, plus three cobblestone blocks just below it, and you get… a brewing stand. Her face beamed like the sun on a summer's day.

She placed the cauldron right beside the stand, gathering some bottles as well.

Now it was time to add water. She hesitantly pulled out her water bucket. If she wasn't careful placing it in the cauldron, it would dissipate into nothing. She closed her eyes as the blue liquid slowly sloshed into the cauldron. She sighed from relief. Now for the fun part. She filled three of her bottles with the water, and placed them in the stand. She took one of the blaze rods, and turned it into blaze powder for fuel. Finally, she put a bit of nether wart at the top of the stand.

Within several minutes, she had acquired awkward potion.

She pulled out some magma cream, placing it where the now absent nether wart once was. Soon. the awkward potions would become potions of fire resistance. Finally! She took the potions out of the stand. She should have been making more, but at the time there was a lack of resources. "What to do, what to do…" Sarah muttered to herself. She would show Pickaxe, but he was currently attempting to get some nether quartz. "JEWEL, HELP!" Sarah swiveled her head towards the sound. This couldn't be good.

Endre and Madison really needed to teach Texik a lesson one day.

"Why the heck did you find it necessary to attack another zombie pigmen!?" Madison shrieked. Texik was too busy slashing against golden swords to be listening. "Are you that obsessed with gold?" Endre questioned, "For goodness sake, we're in the Nether!" Sarah and Jewel just stared at each other for the next few minutes. Texik had already caused THIS much trouble? "Do you have any potions?" Jewel asked, "I still have a bit of cobblestone on me." Sarah gave Jewel the fire resistance potions, as Jewel made a small bridge to where she could throw them safely to the group.

Pickaxe's block collecting adventures were being put on hold… literally.

He was simply mining some more nether quartz ore, when he stepped in something. He tried finding a way to walk against it, but he seemed to be moving slower than usual. That, and he was slowly sinking… He looked down at his feet. He was in some sort of sand, but it was the color of wet dirt. Pickaxe took a closer look. He could've sworn he saw faces in the sand… miserable faces…

He quickly leapt onto another block.

That sand was creepy. He had already found plenty of nether quartz, he even had a few magma blocks. There was no need to continue further, especially if it meant avoiding that weird sand. That weird soul sand. He began to make his way out of the crater, when he noticed something to the side. A strange red plant. Nether wart. "Wait…" he thought aloud, "Doesn't Sarah use this to make potions?" He looked at the block the nether wart was growing on. It was soul sand.

He dug it up in spite of himself, knowing that Sarah might need the stuff for later.

He was heading back to the base, when he noticed a particular structure in the distance. Pickaxe wanted to assume it was Parker's base, but for some reason this structure didn't seem to be Parker's style. It seemed surprisingly natural. That probably wasn't good, since anything natural in the Nether wasn't exactly friendly. He hoped it he was hallucinating, but even from here, he almost believed he heard a click-clack sound, like a skeleton's bones, as well as a fire ball shot off into an unfortunate ghast. He shivered, which was odd considering the unbearable heat. Best to leave that for another day, he decided.

When he finally arrived at the base, he was shocked to see Madison, Texik, and Endre swimming in lava.