Chapter 12: Treasure Hunter
"Steve!"
"Gah!" The sound of my door slamming open, woke me up instantly.
"Are you ready for...ad-venture?" a voice triumphantly asked.
"Yeah, good morning to you too, Rana," I mumbled, half awake. "I was having a nice dream, too. At least, I think."
"Haha, sorry about that..." she responded sheepishly. "It's just that I wanted to be the one to wake you up this time!"
"Well, you certainly succeeded."
"Aw, come on, don't be so grumpy!" she protested while placing her hands on her hips. "Besides, didn't Johnathan tell us to go to that desert temple?"
"You know, for someone who claims to have a tendency to dodge responsibility, you sure chose a good time to drop the habit..." I said as I buried my head in my pillow.
"Hey, come on! I'm trying my best, and you're not being very supportive of me!"
I turned around to look at her again. She seemed genuinely upset, which wasn't my intention.
"I'm sorry; you're right. I'll get ready now."
Upon hearing that, she uncrossed her arms, and started smiling.
"Okay. I'll be waiting for you downstairs~" Her voice rang throughout the hallway.
Groggily, I got off my bed, after rubbing my eyes. That was quite a way to start my day. Anyway, I joined my overly ready friend downstairs.
Friend...
Now that I was thinking about it, our relationship really was extraordinary, wasn't it? I guess friendship genuinely was the most fitting term to describe it, yet I wasn't sure how accurate it was. The fact that I couldn't pinpoint the exact way I felt about Rana, only served to further perplex me. All I knew was that my feelings for her were positive, and maybe that's all that mattered at the moment.
Regardless, after having our usual breakfast and exiting the inn, we spotted two horses, leashed on a fence. They were undoubtedly meant for our expedition. One of the horses was the same one that was given to me for the pillager watchtower infiltration, while the other was one I hadn't seen before. It was white as snow.
"So, do you have a preference?" I asked.
"Hmm, I guess I'll take the white one? Isn't the brown one yours, anyway?"
"No, it was given to me just for that mission."
"Ah, right..."
Even though it hardly lasted a moment, I spotted her trademark smile give way to a sad frown. I could bet a good sum of emeralds that that happened because she remembered her situation, and how rough things were looking for her. It almost hurt to see, and that gave me the push I needed to attempt to brighten the mood.
"Hey, turn that frown upside-down!" I tried mimicking her usual carefree attitude. "That belongs in the past. There's no point in feeling down now, right?"
"Yea-I mean, yes! You're right!" she declared, and got on top of her steed, as I did the same.
"Ready?"
"Ready! Onwards towards...ad-venture!"
Following our maps, we headed northeast.
...
After some time, the lush fields that were speckled with packs of various animals, such as cows, pigs and sheep, became progressively more barren; a clear sign that we were heading in the right direction. The only signs of life were the sporadic cacti, that stood out amidst the sand.
I soon realized that the desert temple would be in the same desert I'd passed by while on my way to the watchtower. So much for leaving that place behind...Well, actually, it wasn't that bad; our destination and the dark oak forest had hundreds of blocks of distance separating them, so the routes diverged relatively early on.
While still racing through the outskirts of the sandy biome, a problem became very apparent: The temperature was rising. Rapidly. The sky not being anywhere near as cloudy as it had been the day before, didn't help. I suddenly became very grateful for having a horse to carry me through, but even it was struggling a little.
Looking to my left, I noticed that my co-adventurer seemed a little faint.
"Are you alright?"
"I've been better..."
"You know, you could probably cool down if you took your hat off."
She turned to face me. Her eyebrows were furrowed to convey a mixture between confusion and disbelief.
"The day I take off my frog hat...will be the day I die..."
'The heat must've gotten to her...Hopefully we'll find the temple soon.'
...
When the sun had about reached its peak, I thought I spotted a peculiar outline protruding from a grainy hill. Initially, I was skeptical, since it was almost indistinguishable from the rest of the environment. As we were closing in on it, however, there wasn't a shadow of a doubt in mind; that was definitely a structure.
"Do you think that's the temple over there?"
"I don't know, Steve. That could be its roof, but the map says we're still a good distance away."
"Alright. Do you want to check it out anyway?"
"Um, sure. Why not?"
Upon closer inspection, the structure turned out to be a well! Or at least, a rough, make-shift well made primarily of sandstone slabs. It hardly resembled the one in Cornelia. To start things off, it was around three blocks tall, one block wide, and one block long, so, quite small. Additionally, the water it contained didn't surpass one block of depth. I was curious as to what mindset led to its construction.
Even though it didn't quite provide the oasis one would expect, it did prove to be a decent resting spot at least, so we were grateful for it. We set a couple torches down to mark the place, in case we got lost, and I did a review of my inventory. As I was browsing, I felt water splash my face.
"Hey!"
"What's wrong?" Rana asked, feigning innocence.
"Don't 'what's wrong?' me!" I replied with a grin, as I returned the 'favor', by swiping my hand on the water's surface. She started giggling as the water made contact with her. A small water fight ensued, by the end of which we were both soaked. I wondered just how far away our laughs could be heard?
'That's certainly one way to cool off...'
Having finally taken a breather, we mentally prepared ourselves to keep going. To both of our delight, we didn't have to stray far from the well at all. A couple sandy hills later, we found what we had gone there for.
The desert temple resembled a pyramid of some sort and, much like the well, was built out of various types of sandstone. It wasn't a plain pyramid, however. On the side the main entrance was on, two tall, square-shaped towers stood imposingly, one on each corner. Overall, the structure was around 10 blocks tall.
Each tower had an abstract pattern 'drawn' on its front wall. By 'drawn', I mean that instead of sandstone, a bunch of orange clay blocks had been placed to form a symbol. The symbol itself almost looked like a tripwire hook, but it was so abstract, that it was hard to definitively say.
We drew closer to the main entrance, and cautiously stepped inside.
The inside of the temple hardly had any element that would suggest it was actually a temple. It was just a large, empty, dimly lit room. The only source of light was the sun itself, as sunlight poured through a one-block gap at the top of the ceiling. It was almost like a makeshift skylight. Even when we placed down a few torches of our own, nothing was uncovered.
"This can't be all there is..."
I snuck a glance at Rana. She was curiously scanning the vacant chamber, until her gaze landed on something.
"Hold on just a moment, Steve. My spider-senses are tingling!"
"What do you mean? And what do spiders have to do with it?"
"I mean that I believe I've solved this temple's puzzle! Look down!"
She tapped her foot as a way to indicate a conspicuous pattern drawn on the temple's floor.
Like the symbols outside, it was formed with the use of orange clay, and roughly resembled a star. There was an exception when it came to block choice, however. The center of the star was marked by blue clay, instead of orange. Admittedly, I felt a little embarrassed for not noticing the symbol sooner. That being said...
"I don't fully understand; what did you figure out?"
"There's something hidden below that blue block! Could be a secret room, treasure...or maybe both! Let's try mining it up!"
"I guess it's worth a shot..."
I wasn't really sure what made her feel so confident that there was something hidden below. At any rate, with a couple of swings of the trusty pickaxe, the shrunken version of the sea-colored block...fell into the abyss?
"Woah!"
Carefully sticking the mining tool through the gap, confirmed that we were standing on a one-block thick floor.
"Are you finding anything?"
"Let's just say that you're onto something. Let's create a bigger opening. Maybe we'll be able to see the bottom then."
"Alright!"
We got to work. The sound of our pickaxes colliding against the earthly materials, echoed throughout the monument's interior. After some time passed, a big enough opening was formed, allowing us to barely make out the bottom of the newly revealed chamber.
"Alright, do you have any ideas on how to get down there?" I was asked. Examining the pit a little more thoroughly, I managed to brainstorm a potential solution.
"Hey, look! The ground around the pit isn't hollow. Maybe if we dig straight down, we'll get to the bottom of this."
Inexplicably, Rana started giggling.
"What?"
"Was that a pun?"
"What? No, I didn't even realize until you pointed it out."
"Aww, okay then...Anyway, yeah, let's keep digging."
Due to the way this world's physics worked, one could mine away the block they were standing on, and safely land on the one below it, since every block would shrink or straight-up vanish when mined, depending on the tool used.
As a result, so long as the ground was solid, getting on a lower elevation was an easy matter.
When we finally reached the floor of the secret room, its bizarre layout was the first thing to catch my eye. Imagine a five-by-five room made of, you guessed it, sandstone. This particular sandstone variant had an interesting detail when it came to its design.
"Is that a creeper's face on that block?" I pointed out. Rana furrowed her eyebrows and placed a hand on her chin in a thinking manner but didn't say anything. In any case, in the middle of each wall, was a chest (so four chests total). Lastly, in the middle of the room, laid a mildly familiar plate.
The only reason it seemed familiar to me, was because I'd passively seen it while browsing the recipe book's interface. I wasn't even able to recall its name, but it had the look of stone. Although I didn't pay it any mind, my companion did.
"Uh, Steve? I don't trust that pressure plate. Catherine told me at one point that these things can trigger traps. I think we should get rid of it."
Judging by the inclusion of a block that had an exploding creature carved on it, a trap wouldn't be too out of the question. Rana looked and sounded pretty serious about this, too, which wasn't super common for her from what I had seen thus far. That, in conjunction with the fact that she had a feeling that there'd be a hidden room in the first place made me believe her.
"Alright. How will we disarm it?"
"Catherine told me that pressure plates go off only if you step on them. I think we'll be fine if we mine it, too."
"Got it."
With a few swings, the pressure plate ended up in my inventory. I felt rather grateful for the innkeeper's indirect help.
"Phew! I feel much safer now. Hey, let's check out these chests now! I'll take these two!" she gleefully declared, as she marched towards the chests closest to her. "Wow, an emerald! And some gold, too!"
Upon hearing the kind of loot the chest that Rana opened had, I wasted no more time in getting to mine. Turning around, I opened the wooden container, expecting something worthwhile. What I got instead, however, was...
"Are you kidding me?"
"What? What did you find?"
"Sand! Can you believe it?" I exclaimed, holding the block in my hand to show Rana the spectacular loot that I got. She broke into a fit of giggles, which only got stronger as I continued my rant. The more I thought about it, the less logical this placement seemed.
"We could have died for sand! Why would someone store sand in a temple that's made of sand, in the middle of a biome that's also full of sand? I don't know who these ancient civilizations were, but they had a terrible sense of humor.
...
It's really not that funny."
"Ha...ha...I'm sorry...haha...It's just...your reaction was pretty...funny...heh. Alright, I'm done now," she said, mostly to convince herself, more so than me. I could even see her lips slyly curving upwards. It was fine, though. I wasn't really angry, and I couldn't get mad at her for something like this.
"Hey, what about the other chest?" she hopefully asked.
"Yeah, let me get ready for round two."
I opened the second chest with lowered expectations and announced its contents.
"Iron, bones and rotten flesh."
"That's pretty...morbid..." she said, taken aback.
"True. I can understand iron, but why the other two? Were they really that valuable?"
"Maybe they were considered rare at the time of this temple's construction? Zombies and skeletons haven't always been this common, according to the prophecy, anyway," she suggested.
I pondered that possibility for a moment, and it did make sense.
"Alright, that's a likely explanation. It could also explain that one chest in the spawning chamber I'd stumbled upon a while back..." I said that last part mostly to myself, so I didn't expect she'd actually pick it up.
"Spawning chamber? You mean a creepy mossy room with a weird black block that looked like a cage?"
"You've been to it, too?" I asked, surprised.
"I did, and it sucked! Spiders are the worst..."
"Yeah, that's true. Wait...spiders?"
"Yes, that cage block kept spawning them out of thin air!"
A theory began to swirl in my head.
"Was that the only chamber you've encountered?" She seemed a little caught off-guard by my question.
"Uh, yes. Why?"
I responded with what had been on my mind since that conversation had started.
"I think there may be multiple of those rooms. The one I explored had a skeleton spawner, not a spider one."
"Wow." She paused to think for a moment and continued. "You said that yours also had bad loot, right?"
"Right. Or at least, one of the two chests did. The other one I believe had pretty good stuff, even though I don't know how to utilize them yet."
"What did you find?" she asked me, fully focused.
"If I recall correctly, I found an enchanted book, a music disc, and...something else. I don't really remember..." Her eyes lit up.
"Oh! What was the music disc's title?"
Answering that was fairly easy. The music disc, even though I didn't understand how it worked, was rather memorable, since it wouldn't show up on the recipe book at all.
"I think it was called 'Cat'."
"Ah, I haven't found that one! So, tell me, you don't know how to make them play?"
"I don't." Was she going somewhere with this?
"Do you have any diamonds?"
"No..." Her smile turned into a bright grin, when she heard my answer.
"Well, Steve," She threw her arm around my shoulder. "I believe I've figured out what our next adventure is gonna be!"
A/N: This chapter was pretty fun to write! I've had the idea of Steve ranting about Minecraft's dungeon loot for a pretty long time, so it feels nice, yet also a little weird, to have finally written it. Thank you for reading!