The Minecraft Story The Kingdom: Chapter 12, a minecraft fanfic

The Minecraft Story: The Kingdom: Chapter 12

May 15, 1638,

The past three months have been hard to get through, but strangely, it's been a bit of a relief. Sphen continues being a good friend and roommate to me. I remember when he helped me make a small shrine for Titus, Rolf, and all the people in my village. It was nice, we even got some flowers which are surprisingly rare around here. Thank you Sphen.

I still haven't had any more dreams about "the egg" since the ravine. I wonder if those dreams are finally in the past. But, sometimes I feel like I can hear that same damn voice. It's always subtle like a whisper in my ear, but when I turn around, nothing. I don't understand those dreams and I probably never will.

I've noticed the number of guards slowly increasing these past few months. I even saw one with diamond armor not too long ago. And it always feels like they're watching me. I don't know if I'm just paranoid. Maybe they just like to keep their eyes on outsiders a short while after they join. But why so damn many of them?

Either way, the others seemed to have noticed it as well. People have been talking about something big going on. Rumors spread like wildfire here in the slums of the Stone Kingdom. However, the main one I'm concerned about is pillagers. People are saying they're back. I mean, they aren't really wrong. But I still don't know how far my village is from here.

I just pray I never have to encounter one of those beasts for the rest of my life. I have another shift starting soon, I'll write again later.

Clank!

The pickaxe hit.

Clank!

The rocks broke off.

Clank!

Hours on end.

Clank!

How long must we swing?

"Hey," Sphen suddenly called out, "You okay there friend?"

Steve snapped out of his trance, "Y-yeah, I'm good. It's just the heat."

A week ago, some miners discovered a ravine with a lake of lava near the bottom. Steve and the other miners clung to edges of the underground ravine. Word spread of the ravine soon being named to level thirteen.

The heat was atrocious. He couldn't imagine how their guard, Travis, with his full leather armor was fairing. However, he didn't have to constantly swing a pickaxe like they did.

Crack!

"Hold on Steve," said Sphen, "Come over here, you need to check this out."

Steve followed Sphen to a pile of rocks. It appeared to have been a cave in. Not any time recently, but still a large one. "You think there might be something good behind this wall of fallen rock?" Sphen laughed.

"I don't know, but if it's unexplored, I'm down," Steve responded.

The unexplored sections of the mines were always simultaneously the most sought after sections and the most feared. Sought after due to the idea of untouched riches like gold, diamonds, and emeralds, but feared because they hadn't been cleared of potential mobs. However, this unexplored area was attracting a lot of attention. Several other miners gathered around the cave in and started mining away with Steve and Sphen.

"Everyone, watch your ass," Travis announced.

It took two hours of mining before it happened. Two hours of monotonous mining turned to sudden abrupt chaos. It started with some small cracking, nothing too uncommon. Then, the rocks started falling down. Steve, Sphen, and the other miners dove out of the way of the incoming rockslide. They could hear some go over the edge and splash into the lava river below. Just like that, it was open.

A passageway into a new section was open. One miner carefully peaked around. It was dark, even with the light from the lava river. He grabbed a torch and threw it inside. That's when they saw the first skeleton.

Woosh!

It flew past Steve's head. Everyone ducked for cover. More arrows flew out of the passage. There had to have been at least three or four skeletons. Travis ran forward with his shield. He stood near the edge of the passage waiting for the mobs to come out. They could hear the boney, crackling footsteps of the skeletons get closer. When the first appeared out of the passage, Travis rushed it and quickly took it by surprise by cutting its head off.

The head rolled over the edge and into the lava river. Two more skeletons began to shoot at Travis. He held his shield up and blocked the arrows. However, Steve noticed something. Travis seemed to already be winded. The arrows hitting his shield were slowly pushing him back towards the edge. He was already losing the fight.

What's happening? Isn't he a guard? Isn't he supposed to be prepared for this? Steve thought. What am I thinking? Can I really say anything?

Travis was being backed more and more towards the edge. It wouldn't be long before he plummeted over the side. The other miners were frozen in fear. He knew he had to do something.

The skeletons were still distracted with Travis and paid no mind to them. Steve picked up his pickaxe and charged the skeletons. He raised his pickaxe up and dropped it down onto the first skeleton. It shattered into pieces and the skull became lodged on one edge of the pickaxe. The other barely had time to turn its head when Steve plunged the other edge of the pickaxe into its skull.

As Steve pulled off the skulls, he heard something behind him. A slight moaning sound.

Shit! Steve thought as he turned to see the zombie. It was meer inches from his face, ready to chomp down on him. Suddenly, the head of the zombie burst open in an explosion of blood and brain matter. Once the zombie fell, he saw Sphen with a blood pickaxe.

"Oh shit man, thanks," Steve thanked.

"I ain't gonna let you die in some cave, brother," Sphen laughed.

The pleasantries were short-lived. A small horde of mobs were coming out of the darkness. A few zombies and spiders, but worst of all, a creeper near the back. Steve readied himself and looked back at Travis. The man was terrified. Tears ran down his face and he noticed the small wet spot near his crotch.

Steve sighed, "Travis, throw me your sword!" Without questioning, he tossed his sword to Steve. He stared down at his new weapon. I shiny iron sword, clearly never been used. Steve then turned to Sphen and gave him his pickaxe, "Take this, and watch my back." Sphen nodded his head.

Steve rushed forward, driving the sword into the head of the first zombie. A spider on the wall suddenly leaped at him, but was struck out of the air by Sphen. Steve punched another zombie in the face to stagger it while he killed another. Once the other zombie was killed, he sliced the head off the one he punched.

Another spider leaped from the ceiling, but Steve hit it in the air. He could see the creeper getting closer with several mobs surrounding it. Suddenly, Steve got an idea.

"Travis, we need your shield!" Steve shouted. Travis's eyes widened as he knew he'd have to go in. Steve could see his legs shaking. "Travis, we need that shield, now!" Sphen killed a zombie that went around the horde and tried to strike Steve. "TRAVIS, PLEASE!"

Travis ran forward, forcing his legs to move. Sphen stretched his arm out. Travis threw the shield to Sphen who then gave the shield to Steve.

Steve immediately rammed his way through the small horde. He held the shield sideways to push as many mobs as possible. Any that he missed was quickly dispatched by Sphen. He screamed as he had to push more and more mobs. However, he was soon near the creeper.

He poked his head from over the shield to make sure the creeper saw him. They made eye contact and the creeper began to charge.

"STAND BACK!" Steve yelled as he braced himself.

BOOM!

Bodies of mobs flew all over the place. Steve was sent flying backwards. The jagged, rocky floor scratched up his back as he landed. He slowly lifted his head to see all the mobs had been blown up by the creeper.

"Damn man, are you okay?" Sphen yelled, "Do you need a doctor?"

"No," Steve coughed, "I've been through worse."

The other miners gathered around Steve and helped him up. They cheered and congratulated him. One miner said he'd pay for his drink later.

When everything had calmed down, Steve was quickly assessed to see if he was injured. However, he was only scraped up a little. Travis apologized profusely, but Steve wasn't bothered by it. Steve, Sphen, Travis, and the other miners stared down into the rest of the passage, eager to see what treasures awaited them. With torches in hand, they traveled into the passage.

It didn't take long for their first bit of treasure to shine in the torchlight. Something white…iron…it was iron, but not just any iron. It was an iron chestplate.

The miners were confused, they were sure this area had never been touched. They were shocked to see more chest plates…and helmets…boots…leggings…entire sets of iron armor. They looked old and rusty. Steve took a closer look with his torch and found a skeleton inside the armor. He jumped back with a scare.

"There's bones in this armor!" Steve yelled. They began to check the rest. Every single set of armor had skeletons inside. The other miners talked amongst themselves.

"Was this area closed off?"

"I don't think we've ever been down here."

"Who are these guys?"

Then, they began to notice some of them had arrows sticking out of them. However, there was something else, something shiny and blue. Steve looked closer and found a skeleton with a full set of diamond armor on.

"What the hell happened here?" Steve asked.

"From the looks of it, these poor bastards have been here long time," Sphen responded, "With how corroded this armor is, it looks like they may have died hundreds of years ago."

"Imagine that, an ancient graveyard," Steve chuckled, "But there's something else back there."

Steve held up his torch and couldn't believe his eyes. He'd only heard about this in legends, said to have been told by the founder himself, Thomas Brines. There was no mistaking the obsidian outline. It was the Nether Portal.