AN: Sorry for the delay. I struggled to write parts of this. I feel like I rushed a certain section, maybe you can guess which one.
Funny thing, though. At work, my supervisor insisted I go home early because I sounded too sick. Surprised me. I even told him I was fine to work - it was just a nasty cough - but he insisted I go, so I shrugged and left early.
Anyway, on with the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Minecraft. If I did, I'd add a use for Glow Lichen.
Chapter 256
Miner's Guild
[Floyd]
"So are these people your actual friends as opposed to murder hobos that tried to kill you?"
Ciro's expression darkened as the Scout Marble shook Soul's, then my hand in greeting. Noman awkwardly laughed to try and diffuse tensions. We were all visible, meeting in an alley with the Miner's Guild in sight, but, surprisingly, the four Scouts Marble brought with him weren't at all wary of being in the presence of a Hacker. On the contrary, they cozied up to me the fastest, with stars in their eyes.
"Are you a real Hacker!?" The woman named Yulia asked eagerly, her body vibrating as she clung to my arm.
"Yes, I am."
"Would you be opposed to a brief dance routine? At the Obelisk?"
"Aaaah...?"
"We're not doing the Hackstreet's Back Alright! Badge." Marble spoke sternly before tightening his fist before him with a painful expression. "No matter how much I want it... No! Must exercise discipline, Marble. Discipline..." He suppressed his gnawing desires with great effort before clarifying the intentions of the Scouts. "We're here for the Troxler Mirror Badge. One major badge undertaking at a time... with maybe some minor ones we can scoop up as a bonus."
"Hear, hear." A Scout named Pyritz agreed, his arms folded and his eyes closed.
"You're right..." Yulia started, "buuut if Noman's friend is available, and he'd be willing to go over some snappy choreogra-"
"I'm good."
"Awwww!"
Anibal laughed behind her hand. "Afraid of a little dancing, Floyd? You know, I used to do some breakdancing as a street performer in Akasha."
Spaatz looked surprised. "I never knew that, ma'am."
"Didn't I tell you? Huh." She shrugged. "Well, I did. I did whatever I could for money in the early days before I turned to thievery. But even after, I used my breakdancing to earn money on the side, especially when picking pockets was no longer safe." She looked to Soul's skeptical face. "You don't believe me? Want me to show you some of my moves?"
"Sure. I got music and a birb that can bust some moves that can rival-"
"Maybe we should shelve that for later." Reuben put words to what I was thinking. "Preferably after we've completed our task. We're hunting a custom Mob called an Illusioner, correct?"
"Yes." Pyritz nodded. "And as part of our hunting party, should any one of you deal the killing blow, it will count as credit for all Scouts involved, securing the badge." The Scouts looked relieved to hear Pyritz's assurance. "I admit, though, this party is a tad larger than expected. There's twelve of us."
"Our inclusion was a spur-of-the-moment thing. We won't slack off." Anibal told him. "This is a job we're being paid for in Wonder Wings. We won't order you around," she allowed, "but we will gently nudge you in the direction of the Illusioner. No offense, but you Scouts are notorious for your short attention spans."
"I cannot argue that." Marble said happily, no offense taken. He was as Noman described, amicable and accepting, though willing to take shots at Ciro. It was nice knowing there were people out there who wouldn't immediately flee in terror at the sight of me, even if they were a tad eccentric.
The Scouts seem like an okay sort. Don't know what Noman and Carys were hesitant about. I thought.
I turned to the last two Scouts, both males. "And you are...?"
"We're-"
"Don't slip up!" One of the nameless Scouts slapped a hand over the other one's face. "You absolute pillock! You almost blew our shot at the Generic Background Character Badge! We don't tell people shit about us!"
"Oh, that's right. Sorry."
"Be more mindful."
"Uwaaah!? No waaaay!" Yulia whined with a pout. "I wanted that badge! But now everyone knows who I am! This sucks!"
"...Wait, huh? How does that work?" Soul questioned. "Your names are literally above your head. You're not generic at all. Your names are-"
"Upupup! Don't say it!" The two 'nameless' Scouts swarmed Soul, their hands blocking his face and making him recoil. "Nobody can say our names or introduce us! This is vital to the badge's requirements."
"They're right, Soul." Marble affirmed. "Don't ruin my juniors' chance at that badge. Yulia already blew it."
"Hey, if I had known-!"
"If you'd known? Rookie mistake, Yulia. A Scout must always be versed in all available badges so as to be prepared for any eventuality."
"I know! It's just that - I - UGH! Y'know what, if I can't have it, nobody can! Their names are V-!"
"AHH! YOU VINDICTIVE BITCH! STOP!"
The trio of junior Scouts tumbled in a mess of limbs as the two 'nameless' ones desperately fought to prevent Yulia from naming them. Fists and insults flew.
Soul smiled at the display, the gesture not quite matching his eyes as he leaned over and whispered out the side of his mouth, "This is a load of barnacles..."
"I tried to warn you." Anibal sighed. "Keeping these crazies on track will be like herding cats." She bemoaned before Cat-Face - finding offense with that crack - sunk its claws into Anibal's corneas and shredded through them like a scratching post. Anibal whipped her head around, screeching in agony while Soul and the rest of his pets followed her to get the cat off.
"No, little Cat-Face! Bad! Anibal's eyes are not for scratching! At least not unless she feeds the parrot disparaging lies about me."
"Raaawk! Soul eats ass!"
"I do not! Never in my life have I eaten a single ass!"
Marble nodded sagely. "So you've consumed multiple asses. I see-"
"NOOOO! Augh! Keep shredding, Cat-Face! She deserves it!"
Then again, comparatively, our unique brand of crazy gave the Scouts' brand of crazy a run for its money.
Ciro walked into the screaming Anibal's path and stopped her cold before grabbing Cat-Face by the waist and, with the same tenderness as one tearing off a band-aid, ripping the small animal out of her eye sockets. The dark-skinned girl let out a scream barely muffled by her sealed lips before straightening up and uttering, with tears in her eyes, a flat, "Ow."
"I'd prefer it if we can move this along." Ciro's mismatched eyes surveyed the Scouts, prompting the three junior ones to quit their squabbling.
"Of course." Pyritz nodded before beckoning the group forward, out of the alleyway and towards the ornate stone building. I drank a Potion of Invisibility while Noman opted to stay visible. It was probably because his crimes and his bounty were minor. He wasn't as infamous as I was, and, indeed, no Exterian batted an eye when he walked out, though he kept his head down and huddled beside Soul, Ciro, and Spaatz.
"Psst. Hey." Yulia whispered to the two 'nameless' Scouts she had been fighting with. "There's a Counterintuitive Contretemps Badge."
The 'nameless' dramatically gasped. "Let's have Marble authorize it!" They whispered back eagerly, the three of them all smiles.
I sweatdropped in exasperation.
"First things first." Pyritz told the nearest of the group as we entered the building. "We should check in with one of the receptionists. Let them know we're here for the subjugation request."
"Alright, everyone. Be cool. Don't do anything to arouse suspicion."
"I don't want to hear that from you." Ciro told Marble pointedly. "Just let Anibal or me do the talking."
"I know from experience you do your talking with an explosive bow."
"Will both of you shut up?" Reuben hissed.
The Miner's Guild was a grand, bustling building with stone columns lined up in a row, a high, domed ceiling, and miners buzzing to and fro. There were stairwells leading to a lower floor, but not many miners were using them. I assumed they lead to the network of tunnels going deep underground. There was also about ten heavily guarded Nether portals near the back. Miners carrying diamond armor, swords, and pickaxes were eagerly lined up, entering the portals one at a time. Occasionally, some returning miners could be seen exiting the portals, their belts loaded with Netherrack, Nether Quartz, and other blocks I couldn't identify. Bounty Day blocks, in other words.
The Hack Clan wouldn't like that. I thought to myself.
Our group made a beeline for the reception desk. There was a bit of a line, but we didn't have to wait long before we were helped.
"How can I help you fine folks, today?" A female receptionist asked kindly.
"We're here for the Mob extermination request." Pyritz informed politely. Despite being a Scout like Marble and Yulia, he seemed the most serious and determined of the bunch. He and Marble were the senior Scouts, while Yulia and the 'nameless' two were junior Scouts.
"...Very well, then." The receptionist's expression turned grave for a moment before she recovered herself. "The Miner's Guild will provide any and all intel we've gathered on the Mob in question, as well as information on the new underground biomes that've become its stomping grounds." She offered, bending down and procuring a book of intel. She slid it to Anibal. "I advise you to watch yourselves. You're not the first to take on this request, and many Crafters have lost their lives trying to complete it."
"Have any come back?"
"Only a handful, and that's the frightening part, considering some of the ones who went down there were Diamond ranked guildmembers. You'll find their accounts of the Mob in the book."
"Diamond ranked?" Soul asked.
"You're not familiar with our ranking system?" The receptionist asked before clearing her throat and launching into a rehearsed sermon. "Here at the Miner's Guild, new miners start out at Wood rank, the lowest. They're only entitled to 30% of the price of the ores and rocks they retrieve, and the guild provides them with three iron pickaxes, two stone shovels, and a stack of torches per week."
"That's all they get?" Soul asked skeptically. "That's nothing. And if they're getting 30% of the price of the ores, what about the other 70%?"
"That goes to the guild."
"70% goes to the guild?"
"Maybe it sounds unreasonable to you," the receptionist began, "but have you considered the costs of keeping this guild going, or of uncovering new, untouched mineshafts where miners are allowed to thrive? Crafters have been mining since the first Crafter spawned five-hundred years ago. Things have been picked clean. You'd be hard pressed to find any ores for a hundred miles of this place. The Miner's Guild, however, leaves nothing to waste - not even andesite, or diorite, or gravel. We use it all. We control where the Wood and Stone ranked miners mine, and we supply them, so they don't have to waste money on their own tools. We take care of them, and they take care of us."
"Couldn't they just mine elsewhere?"
"They could, but we have our own quotas. Bare minimums that need to be met. An iron pickaxe can only break so many rocks. If they use up all three of theirs in a week, then come back asking for more with nothing to show us - not even cobblestone - we're obviously going to penalize them. Plus, we have the best contacts to flip minerals and metals fast. We know engineers in need of redstone and nether quartz, archers in need of flint, masons and architects in need of polished building minerals, and combatants in need of iron and diamond gear. The Miner's Guild's name means something... as those flatlanders have learned." The receptionist added somewhat deviously. She was referring to the price hikes on ores and gems going to Dover Plains. "Miners who don't offload their ores through the guild find it more troublesome. They're welcome to try, but it's a lot easier for the guild."
"Moving on," the receptionist continued. "After six months of Wood rank, you advance to Stone. Stone becomes Iron rank in a year, Iron becomes Gold rank in five years, and Gold becomes Diamond rank in twenty years. The benefits scale with rank. Stone rank gets 40% of the price of the ores they sell, Iron rank gets 50%, Gold rank gets 70%, and Diamond rank gets 95%. Only Gold rank or higher are allowed to mine in the Nether."
"Because it's dangerous?" Noman guessed.
"Exactly right. The Nether has limitless mining space but is extremely hazardous. Miners face the sudden threats of Mobs spawning in the darkness on a regular basis. Lasting to Gold rank is proof enough that they can take care of themselves. Only those experienced miners are allowed to mine in the Nether, which is a shame since we have so few during this Bounty Day upheaval of the Nether dimension."
"So some of the miners you sent after that Mob in the mine were Diamond ranked." Soul noted. "They were the most experienced you had?"
"Unfortunately, yes, and it's much worse than that." The receptionist looked forlorn. "Diamond ranked miners are allowed to use exclusive enchanted pickaxes that belong to the guild. They're trusted since they bring in the most ores, and, ergo, the most wealth. They only need to repair the pickaxes with their own accrued EXP and materials before they break and return them. But now..."
"Let me guess," Spaatz chimed in, "the miners that didn't return were carrying expensive Fortune III, Efficiency V, Silk Touch I, Mending I, and/or Unbreaking III diamond pickaxes."
"You certainly know your enchantments." The receptionist nodded sadly. "You're right. We're missing several prized pickaxes, and our prospects of recovering them safely are as dire as dealing with the murderous Mob." She looked up. "If you're going down there, even if you fail to locate or defeat the Mob, the guild would be immensely grateful if you could recover any of the missing eleven guild pickaxes. We'd remunerate you handsomely - the guild leader himself gave his word!"
Anibal shrugged a shoulder, trying to look aloof. The gesture was at odds with the dollar signs in her eyes as she eyed us. "Could be a good way to make some extra money."
"We make no promises." Pyritz told the receptionist callously. "We're here for the Mob. Anything less is not our concern."
Anibal sighed miserably. "Yeah, he's probably right. We'll keep our eyes peeled all the same." She told the receptionist. "If they're in our path, we're hardly gonna ignore them."
"That's all I can hope for. Thank you." The receptionist nodded before getting out of her seat. "I'll guide you to the entrance myself. Follow me."
The receptionist led us down one of the many stairwells to the area beneath the floor of the building. A few of us were surprised to find a vast, hollowed out area of empty space where rock should've been, illuminated by torches and redstone lamps. The miners had thoroughly mined everything away, going beyond ores and into cobblestone and dirt, leaving nothing to waste. There, in the hollowed-out area, there were various minecart tracks going into various tunnels going deeper in. It was the starting point of the underground network of tunnels from which Crafters mined from. The section of tunnels on the west side were cordoned off, with several armed guild staff guarding it. They were tasked with keeping the miners away, and it was there the receptionist led us.
As I looked around, I noticed the empty space still saw use despite the lack of anything to mine. It only looked that way. Pockets of Crafters were gathered around pools of water and lava, mining a replenishing supply of cobblestone as the running water and running lava mixed together. Others were stacking columns of gravel only to knock out the bottom block and quickly replace it with a torch to allow the gravel to fall and break, potentially into valuable flint, before they gathered the remaining gravel and reset the columns.
"Cobblestone and gravel generators." The receptionist explained. "We use the empty space here for that, though we're in the process of allocating space for underground farms to help with the food demand." She brought us to the guarded, cordoned off tunnels, then spoke with the guards. Whatever she told them, they cleared out a big enough portion of the barricades to allow us entry.
"The Mob's stomping grounds are approximately eighty meters down." The receptionist flashed us a thumbs up. "I'll pray for your safe return."
"Thank you." Noman nodded with a smile. Nobody else bothered to thank the girl as she made to return to her post. We were all too focused on our mission.
After we crossed the threshold of the barricade, the guards sealed it up behind us. It wasn't dark, however, as the downward sloping tunnel was lined with torches. There was a functional railway, but the Scouts refused to use it.
"We might run into the Illusioner's attacks, or we could zoom past and miss something. We need to inspect every nook and cranny of this tunnel thoroughly so that our quarry doesn't escape." Pyritz explained clearly.
"At least the Miner's Guild passed on what intel they gathered." Noman noted as we descended. "That's good for us, right?"
"A fat load of good." Anibal remarked sarcastically, holding the book between her pinched thumb and pointer finger like it was trash. "The intel conflicts with what Marble told us; the miners who came back claimed the Illusioner was invincible, with no mention of the invisible original. By comparison, and I can't believe I'm saying this, the Scouts' description was more comprehensive."
"Always the note of surprise." Pyritz drawled.
"About the only useful things in here are the notes on the newly emerged underground biomes, and the area where the Illusioner has been most active. All the Crafters and miners they've sent there haven't come back." Anibal put the book away and turned to the Scouts. "If you can spare some arrows, Reuben can make them into Spectral Arrows. They'll give us an edge on locating the Illusioner when it's invisible."
The two 'nameless' Scouts nodded and handed over some arrows so that Reuben could combine them with glowstone dust.
"I'm good. I've got all the necessary arrows right here." Ciro noted wryly as he patted the Yanhua Gong hanging from his belt. Since the arrows dealt a wide blast radius, they were indeed suited to taking out the Illusioner.
"It's not as bombastic as your piece of weaponry, but I've got my own peacemaker on hand." Marble adjusted his Tinker weapon - the golden longsword - at his belt. Meanwhile, Anibal loaded rockets into her crossbows, ready to draw them at a moment's notice.
"This is wild. We're really gonna go under the old bedrock layer." Yulia spoke excitedly, her body vibrating in place. "The Bedrock Bottom Badge and Beyond Bedrock Bottom Badge are as good as mine."
"How can we go below bedrock?" Soul asked.
"One of the recent Bounty Days replaced the bottom bedrock level with a rock known as deepslate." Marble informed happily. "The new layer of bedrock was set sixty-four meters further down, and between the old layer and new layer, a whole new plethora of biomes and caves emerged, all made up of deepslate."
"Deepslate is denser rock than stone." Anibal read from the receptionist's notes. "Breaking it yields cobbled deepslate, in the same way that stone breaks into cobblestone."
"So stone becomes deepslate below where the old layer of bedrock existed." Spaatz summarized. "It's strange, since it's been proven that the only thing under the old bedrock layer was the Void. The Bounty Day just slapped on another sixty-four meters of ground under the underground, and that's all over the world."
"Considering there are new veins of ores in these added grounds, this'll cause a boom of resources in every kingdom. And who knows what other new ores are buried below." Anibal noted. "The Miner's Guild picked a perfect time to extort Dover Plains into lowering their prices."
"As if that'll ever happen." Yulia scoffed. "Dover Plains won't stand looking weak. They'll ride out this embargo if only out of spite, all while thousands of Exterians starve."
"Where do the Scouts stand on this whole feud between Dover Plains and Exter?" Noman asked curiously.
"Well, the Scouts generally try and stay out of political matters outside the Inter-Kingdom Politics Badge," Marble noted, earning a collective eyeroll from half our group, "but Scouts gotta eat to have the energy for badges... unless they're gunning for the Hangry Badge, or the Hunger Strike Badge, or the You're Not You When You're Hungry Badge-"
"We, uh, get the picture." Noman tried to stop him to no avail.
"Plus, how can the younger Scouts earn their Husbandry Badges or their A Balanced Diet Badges of they don't have food to eat? And how can the Scouts in Dover Plains get their Stone Age Badges or their Getting an Upgrade Badges? This moronic feud has gone too far!"
If the Scouts were calling it moronic, you know it was bad.
"So how do we stop this feuding?" Noman asked. It wasn't hard to guess what was on his mind, but stopping a war? That seemed too complex for us to fix - far beyond what we were capable of. All we could do was fight things, but fighting wouldn't necessarily solve both sides' problems.
Personally, I was on Exter's side. They didn't want to feed the Hackers, but they had to after their old supermarket - Akasha - got vaporized. That didn't give Dover Plains the right to jack up their food prices and exacerbate an already terrible situation.
"I'm not sure this feud can be stopped." One of the 'nameless' Scouts chimed in. "Things just seem to keep escalating. Tempers are rising. I'm not even sure King Sdraw can resolve it."
"But there has to be something." Noman insisted valiantly. Naively more like it. "As a practitioner of Aikido, I believe in waging peace, not war. There has to be some common-"
"Noman, just-!" Anibal cut him off, her fist tightening as she fought to contain her frustrations with the pacifist. She breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth before speaking to him calmly. "Exter is helping the Hack Clan to spare themselves Akasha's fate. Dover Plains disapproves - though I'm sure those hypocrites would supply the Hackers next if they didn't have a choice." She added as an aside. "As it stands, relations between the two kingdoms are continuing to deteriorate, especially after their recent execution of an Exterian on Dover Plains soil. Dover Plainers are being killed in the streets or run out of their homes here in the capital. The same is probably happening in Dover Plains. Can you find a peaceful solution for all those people that died? Can you give them justice?"
Noman looked down, lost for words when faced with Anibal's intense line of questioning.
"No," she answered for him, "you can't. Nobody can. These are complex, messy issues. Both sides would have to forgive a lot of each other, and I don't think they're ready for that. It might take the cost and weariness of a war to make them ready to compromise."
Noman's gaze snapped up, his eyes terrified. "There can't be a war! That would lead to countless deaths!"
"They need to fight to work out their problems." Anibal shrugged, but not cruelly. She was aware of Noman's plight. "Some things have to fall apart so that other things can fall into place. That's just life sometimes. You can't just expect them to get over it."
Ciro listened to the exchange between Noman and Anibal with a keen interest. He was waiting to see what Noman would say, but when it was clear Noman was at a loss for an answer, he turned his attention back to the tunnels.
After going fifty meters down, taking care to check every shadowy nook and cranny of the tunnel, we finally reached the point where the old layer of bedrock used to be. My invisibility had run out at some point, and I didn't bother reapplying it right away.
The downward sloping tunnel abruptly cut off, forming a sort of landing where miners must've excavated above the bedrock level after being unable to dig down any further. But now that the bedrock had been replaced with deepslate, a fresh tunnel had been opened up leading down. We had to go thirty meters deeper to find the site of the disappearances.
The air was stale and hot so deep underground, and we were soon to venture deeper. I ran a hand along the black-gray rock. It was layered and certainly felt denser than the stone above. There was another type of rock - Tuff - that Anibal identified from the Miner's Guild notes. It was dark gray, found in blobs amongst the deepslate, and was noticeably softer, made of volcanic ash. Mining through tuff was easier than mining through deepslate. Our group had pickaxes in the event we had to mine anything.
Marble kept track of our depth as we descended. Once we reached thirty meters below the old bedrock level - or thirty meters of deepslate - the downward sloping tunnel came to an end, splitting up into a four-way intersection illuminated by more than torches.
"What is this stuff?" Reuben asked as he touched a glowing block, only to recoil as it was more like a grayish-green vine clinging to the deepslate rather than an actual block.
Anibal flipped through some pages in the Miner's Guild notes. "Ah. It's Glow Lichen. Some king of bioluminescent moss that grows down here." She reported. "If we ever run out of torches, finding walls of this stuff would be better than fumbling in the dark."
"Ooh, ooh, ooh!" Yulia made excited monkey noises. "Make some shears! We can get the I'm Lichen It Badge by harvesting-"
"No. No, no. We're not getting sidetracked." Anibal steered the overexuberant Scout away from the lichen. "We gotta find the Illusioner, remember?"
"But it's right theeeeere!" Yulia whined.
Ciro sighed. "I'm already foreseeing several troublesome complications with our current lineup. At least when I was blackmailed into working for the Berserkers, the Dahlia train never switched tracks midway through the trip."
"Oh, man. Dahlia was a while ago." I reminisced, remembering the woman who tried to get me to kill Princess Alaqua and keep the Berserkers and Desideratum in power in Jolin.
"Who?" Soul tilted his head.
"Dahlia, Soul. Dahlia_Darko."
Soul's eyes had a vague quality to them as his brain came up blank.
"She was in charge of the Berserkers in Jolin, remember?"
"Lavender hair. Twin tails." Ciro tried to help him before muttering under his breath, "Looked like a bitch."
"Huh. Not ringing any bells." Soul shrugged. "Jolin was pretty forgettable if you ask me."
"Raaawk! Pretty forgettable!" His parrot echoed.
"And you say we get off track? Humph." Marble scoffed before looking between the four different tunnels. "The path splits. Should we...?"
"No way. We can get lost down here. Especially with Scouts hunting for errant badges." Anibal decided. "We'll stick together. Someone pick a path. We'll mark our way back with-" One of the 'nameless' Scouts brought out a sign and placed it on the nearest wall, scribbling down an arrow towards the tunnel we came down. "-Yes. That'll do."
"So just pick a path, eh?" Spaatz looked left and right. "Anyone feeling lucky?"
"No, but I have something better than luck." Yulia remarked before holding her hands up to her ears and closing her eyes. She stood in the center of the intersection.
"What is she-?"
"Shh!" Pyritz shushed, allowing silence to permeate the caverns.
With tons of rock smothering the sounds of the capital above, any sound below ground would be magnified as it echoed off the tunnels. That was what Yulia listened to as her ear twitched in the rightmost direction.
"I hear shooting arrows that way." She pointed. "Could be our Illusioner or a Skeleton, but they wouldn't be shooting unless it's at another Mob or a Crafter."
"Which could mean someone's in trouble." Noman noted as he put on his Stivali Magma and ran ahead.
"There goes a stupid, stupid man." Spaatz commented. "The Illusioner might not even be there."
"I wouldn't mind a little warm-up." Soul smirked as he tried to draw his Cleaver with noticeable difficulty before defaulting to his Sharpness V diamond axe. "Lezduit!" He cheered as he and his pets followed after Noman.
The rest of our group followed.
Running down the two meter by two meter wide tunnel, we exited out into a vast, dark, open cavern. A flat expanse of deepslate stretched before us, partially illuminated by springs of lava or some of that Glow Lichen. The lack of torches indicated it was unexplored territory, and the darkness meant it was the ideal breeding ground for Mobs to spawn.
It was too dark to see clearly, but I could hear Zombies and Skeletons, as well as the grunts and howls of hurt Crafters.
The darkness didn't last, however, as a jet of orange flames shot out of Noman's Stivali Magma, bathing the cavern and the swarming Mobs in an orange glow. The cavern was thirty meters high, with thick deepslate pillars that stretched from the ceiling to the floor. The way they were shaped was like a stalagmite and a stalactite that stretched to connect together into the shape of a pillar. Ores and blobs of tuff and gravel dotted the cavern, and the amassed Mobs included Creepers, Spiders, Witches, Endermen, Zombies, Skeletons, and the occasional, innocent bat.
"Raaawk! It's on biotch!" Christopher Squawken squawked before flapping off of Soul's shoulder and after the nearest bat.
Cat-Face was more useful, gamboling over and making the Creepers flee in abject terror. Axolittle... admittedly did nothing, sat in its bucket.
"It's okay, Axolittle. You go when you feel like it." Soul cooed overindulgently before raising his axe and giving a war cry.
"Stay back from the flames!" Noman shouted to the imperiled Crafters before loosing another burst of orange flames with a back kick. The Crafters shrunk back as the flames roared through the Mobs, bathing them in undying flames. Spiders hissed, Zombies groaned and flailed. Endermen bounced around in random warps, futilely trying to put themselves out. Only the Witches fared the best, drinking Potions of Fire Resistance within the first two seconds of catching fire.
Soul's axe buried itself in the head of a burning Spider, finishing it off. Marble careened forward at breakneck speed that could rival my Speed Hack, cutting past another Mob and making it die in a shower of EXP and loot a second later.
So that's his Longsword in action. I thought before watching Anibal fire rockets at a group of untouched Skeletons, killing them all in an explosion of white sparkles. I joined in, pointing with my fists and channeling my Hacker powers into launching a volley of ebony MultiAura spines.
Noman stood before the four imperiled Crafters and loosed a sweeping kick to spray fire in a wide crescent, warding off the worst of the Mobs. Ciro's Yanhua Gong blasted chunks of rock loose from the ceiling, raining down gravel which smothered the Mobs, choking them to death, but also, surprisingly smothering the 'eternal' flames of the Stivali Magma. Apparently, the flames could be extinguished by falling blocks, like gravel, sand, or anvils. It didn't save the Mobs, but it was important to know the artifacts' limits.
It was an understatement to say we made short work of the Mobs. Funnily enough, everyone had enough awareness to avoid hitting the cat and parrot. When the Mobs were wiped out, and the cavern sufficiently illuminated by orange flames, (and the bat thoroughly scared off by Squawken,) we eased up on our weapons and counted what meager EXP levels we could scrape together. It was hard when Noman's flames burned most of the loot.
"If one of the guild's special diamond pickaxes were here, it's ash now." Anibal sighed.
"How are you four doing? Are you hurt?" Noman fussed over the four Crafters we had just saved. They were clad in iron, with weapons, pickaxes, and potions hanging off their belts. They looked like standard adventurers.
"No, no we're fine! Thank you - thank all of you - for saving us!" One of the Crafters breathed a sigh of relief. "We came down here to mine and fell down a patch of loose gravel. Those Mobs would've killed us for sure if not for you."
Pyritz, Ciro, and Anibal watched the four Crafters suspiciously as they spoke.
"Does this mean we get our Good Samaritan Badge?" Yulia asked Marble eagerly.
"Sure does! Gather round, young'uns." Marble said sweetly before the junior Scouts sidled up to him.
"What exactly are you guys doing mining down here?" Anibal asked suspiciously.
"What do you mean? We're miners." One answered a little too quickly.
"Yes," Pyritz added, "but this whole area was barricaded up. There's a dangerous Mob on the loose. We were tasked with hunting it down."
"We came in from a different cavern. It's a maze down here. Do you think we can stick with you until we find the way out?" One of them asked.
"Of cour-" Noman made to answer before getting stopped by Ciro. His mismatched eyes were on the four Crafters.
"So you four are miners?" Pyritz asked.
"Sure are."
"Are you with the Miner's Guild?"
"Yes."
"What rank?"
"We're - Iron rank. Why are we getting the third degree? Is it a crime to mine now?" One of them asked defensively.
"They're right. They just got through a harrowing experience." Noman tried to help them out. "No need to grill them for it."
"One last question." Pyritz promised. "If you're really Iron ranked members of the Miner's Guild, what percentage of profits are you entitled to for the sales of minerals and ores?"
The answer was 50%, as the receptionist had explained to us above. Iron ranked Miner's Guild members - who've been with the guild for at least a year - would know that.
So why weren't any of the four Crafters able to answer?
"Well?" Pyritz hurried them, making them flinch or else break out into a nervous sweat. A few of us readied our weapons at their unwillingness to answer.
They were being suspicious. Pyritz was really smart to sniff them out. He was definitely a cut above the other Scouts.
"You may as well confess." Pyritz declared while pointing at them accusingly. "You're other Scouts here to steal our Troxler Mirror Badge and glory, aren't you!? Well you're not getting it! That badge is ours!"
"YEAH!" The Scouts echoed behind him. They were all so sure of themselves that it hurt me a little inside. Hurt the four suspicious Crafters too as they wore bemused expressions.
"...I don't think that's who they are." Anibal ran a hand over her face before pointing a loaded crossbow at the Crafters. "Tell us who you really are."
"...You really want to know?" One of the suspicious Crafters asked dangerously before ripping out a bow and firing at us with a frenzied scream. "DIE, HEATHENS! DIE AND BE BORN ANEW!"
So they were cultists, then.
Noman blocked the arrows with his shield while the Scouts looked on in confusion at the sudden attack. "You mean they're not fellow Scouts?"
I raced forward with my Speed Hack and clotheslined a pair of the Crafters with a Strength Hack infused lariat, knocking them flat on their asses for Spaatz and Reuben to finish off. Anibal damaged the one shooting at us with a firework, the white sparks blinding him so that Soul could get close and finish him off. The fourth one tried to flee only for Ciro to intercept and freeze him with the Arcticum Arma.
Anibal sifted through the gear of the dead Crafters, finding black leather caps, suicide stews, and Crafter Heads. "Cultists. Seems we finally found them... Oh!" She reached down and procured an enchanted diamond pickaxe. "And it looks like they've found one of the guild's missing picks. Lucky us."
"How much you wanna bet these guys had a hand in all the disappearing miners and adventurers?" Soul remarked, brutally kicking the disembodied Head of one of the cultists.
"We should interrogate this one." Ciro jerked his head to the last cultist encased in ice. "Find out what they're doing here, where their base is, who their other Lieutenant is, how Hybridization works, etc."
"Good thinking." Reuben nodded, pulling out some splash potions of Slowness and Weakness. "Thaw him out whenever you're ready, Noman."
Noman, however, hesitated. He looked to the other three cultists we turned into piles of gear with a troubled expression.
"...If we do interrogate him, we should bring him back alive and hand him over to the guards. I won't thaw him out unless you swear he'll live to see the inside of a cell."
"Aneurysm... growing..." Anibal closed her eyes in annoyance. She conferred with Reuben and Spaatz for a moment. I heard the phrase 'dewy-eyed moron' thrown around a lot. Soul showed deep disapproval, and I felt the same way, propped up and limp as I was recovering from my Speed Hack's cooldown. These cultists deserved to die; they would kill us in a heartbeat if the situations were reversed. Noman was too soft.
Ciro watched silently with mismatched eyes, neither supporting nor decrying Noman's terms.
Surprisingly, Anibal and the Paragons accepted Noman's terms, prompting him to use the Stivali Magma to thaw the cultist out of his icy prison. The cultist reacted in an instant, but Reuben was faster, splashing him with Slowness and Weakness and making him topple like a felled tree.
"What the-? What happened? What is this?" The cultist, Rurik_Spindle, asked in a panic. He was surrounded on all sides by enemies and unable to lift a finger. His quivering voice indicated he knew what was in store.
"Oooh, are we about to earn our Heavyhanded Torture Badge?" Yulia asked curiously.
"...There's a badge for that?" I asked worriedly. Just what sort of organization were the Scouts to okay a badge like that?
"Y-You Paragons and Beginners! You're fighting for something that doesn't exist! All this is temporary! If you-!"
"Spare us the cultist rhetoric and tell us something we don't know," Anibal talked down to him cruelly. "Or else."
"Or else what? Kill me! I welcome death!" Rurik shouted back defiantly.
"Soul." Anibal held her hands out to the axe-wielder without breaking eye contact with the cultist. "I would like to borrow Cat-Face for a minute."
Soul grinned cruelly. "With pleasure."
Five uninterrupted minutes of eyeball shredding torture later, Rurik was more cooperative. Noman wore a miserable expression from the more intense moments of the torture, but he stayed to listen to what the cultist had to say.
"We came down here with a team of thirty cultists and our Lieutenant, Leadstripe." Rurik revealed, the name getting a spark of recognition from Noman and the Paragons. I knew him too, but only in passing. He was the Western Lieutenant. "We were to hunt down the unknown Mob terrorizing these mines and any Crafters or miners that crossed our path! We've been down here for two days."
"I knew these guys were after the Illusioner!" Pyritz declared. "I was just wrong about who they identified as is all. A perfectly honest mistake."
"What does Leadstripe want with the Illusioner?" Anibal asked.
"I-I don't know! I didn't even know it was called that! He just wanted us to kill it and bring him back proof! I swear!"
"So Leadstripe is down here too." Marble remarked with a sardonic smile. "This really is turning into some shitty reunion. What a coincidence. Is he somewhere close?"
"I-I don't know. We split up - no, keep that cat away from me! I'm telling the truth!"
"You better tell us more truth, because Cat-Face's paws are growing dull and in need of some goddamn EYEBALL SHARPENING!"
"OKAY, OKAY! UHH!" Rurik panicked as Cat-Face's paws made several swipes at his eyes, its claws ghosting past them. "Umm, uhhhh, the-the Mob was... was chased deeper into the-the amethyst geodes south of us after it killed three of our own." He spoke in a rush. "The others are spread out to the south, trying to locate it. Progress is slow going."
"We better move, then." Pyritz decided, whipping out a compass. "Our coveted badge is at risk."
"Wait, you idiots." Anibal tried to make them wait until the interrogation was over, but they took off towards the south without looking back. "I said wait, damn it! WAIT! Ugh, like herding cats!" She cursed as they vanished down another tunnel. "They're no match for a Lieutenant! We gotta follow them." She tossed Cat-Face back to Soul, then tossed Rurik to Noman. "You want to keep him alive, keep him alive. I've got more questions for him."
Noman adjusted his hold on the paralyzed cultist and gave us the okay to go on ahead and help the Scouts. It was a race to kill the Illusioner between us and the cultists. We didn't know why they wanted it, but it couldn't be good whatever it was. Not to mention, if the cultists succeeded, the Scouts wouldn't get their badge, meaning no Wonder Wings for Carys."
We left Noman trailing behind as we raced to catch up with the overzealous Scouts.
[Carys]
"Hey, Carys. Come take a look at this."
I lifted my head from the Citizenship Informations with an irritated expression. "Whatever you're looking at wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the cultists we're investigating, would it?"
"Just get over here. C'mon."
I rolled my eyes before getting up and walking over to join Kal looking out the window. He pointed out past the various pools of the hot springs, towards an unusual procession of Crafters. At least fifty of them.
"What the hell? Is there a parade going on?" I squinted to make out who the people were. They didn't bear the purple-dyed leather caps of the guards and were instead a mix of males and females. Were they cultists in disguise? They were heading right for the entrance to the hot springs we were at, but without any visible armor or weapons hanging from their belts.
"I thought the same. The foot traffic for this place makes that many people too unusual." Kal pointed out.
Albert joined us to look at the procession. "Maybe the hot springs has some promotional event today?"
Something felt off about this. I didn't like all those Crafters around. Even less if they went around the springs, potentially stumbling upon us. Too many snooping guests made our base - if you could even call it that - less secure.
I turned to Albert to make him ask the front desk about any promotional events, but then I stilled, remembering he was a Dover Plainer who had snuck in to avoid persecution by the Exterians. I was a wanted criminal and Kal was a freaking Hacker. None of us could go ask about this without exposing ourselves. Maybe Kal could wear a mask, but that would just look-
The room exploded with the force of a bomb, shattering the walls, ceiling, and floor and blasting us out of the wreckage and into the hot spring pools. I heard someone land against hard stone with a harsh grunt, another land with a splash in a pool, and then myself in a separate pool, the warm water soaking through my sleeveless turtleneck and making it soggier and heavier.
I shook off the disoriented feeling and flipped to my feet in the water before kicking up for a breath of air. When I breached, I took stock of Kal and Albert. The former was recovering while the latter had come out of his separate pool in a similar matter as me.
Meanwhile, the procession of Crafters coming towards the hot springs stopped, pointed, and screamed in terror at the smoke-clad figure floating above the wrecked resort room with her hands on her hips, oozing confidence. A Hacker.
I hoisted myself out of the water and defaulted into my battle stance. I drew my scythe with a flourish to dry it, spraying flecks of water off its diamond surface. Kal took one look at the floating girl and recognized her immediately.
"Nikita!" He shouted, his own Hacker smoke cloaking him. The procession of Exterians saw it and made noises of shock at the sight of two Hackers.
"Kal! You damn traitor! Led astray by this insect!" Nikita snapped before turning to me and bellowing even louder. Loud enough to be heard by the procession of witnesses. "And Carys_Angel! Angel of Death! Slayer of my siblings! You'll die for that!" Nikita held up her hand before her, towards me.
"MOVE!" Kal warned. My reflexes kicked in and I kicked out, propelling myself to the left just before an explosion of air and black smoke impacted where I'd been standing moments ago. Stone crumbled under Nikita's air impact. It was the same thing she used to detonate our room. No warning or propulsion trail, just a sudden explosion of air where she was pointing. A form of MultiAura or Reach, maybe? Some kind of controlled explosion.
"You call yourself an Angel of Death? HA!" Nikita crowed loudly while I rolled to a skidding stop. "What is an angel in the face of a GOD!?"
I made a come-hither motion, which infuriated her. "Come down and I'll show you."
[Brimstone Bastion]
King Sdrawkcab looked through his spyglass - a product of one of the recent Bounty Days - from the bastion ramparts. He watched as Nikita confronted Carys, and in front of all those witnesses. Without Nowhere_Man, Flawwed_Floyd, or Ciro_Che around, the threats to Nikita's safety were substantially reduced. As long as she did what he directed of her, she wouldn't die. The dominos were in motion.
"Bishop to Queen three." Sdraw remarked wryly as he lowered the spyglass, his apologetic smile widening. "Check."
Inventory (Floyd): 1 Mob Head {Creeper}, 1 Diamond Pickaxe, 1 Iron Sword, 1 Diamond Helmet [Projectile Protection IV], 1 Diamond Chestplate [Projectile Protection IV], 1 Diamond Leggings [Projectile Protection IV], 1 Diamond Boots [Projectile Protection IV], 1 Shears, 2 Iron Ingots, 24 Coal, 20 Torches, 17 Baked Potatoes, 2 Cooked Porkchops, 1 Fishing Rod, 1 Furnace, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Minecart, 1 Bed, 1 Boat, 16 Gunpowder, 9 Ender Pearls, 1 Splash Potion of Slowness {4:00}, 1 Splash Potion of Weakness {4:00}, 1 Splash Potion of Weakness {4:00}, 1 Splash Potion of Healing II, 1 Splash Potion of Healing II, 1 Splash Potion of Healing II, 1 Splash Potion of Healing II, 1 Splash Potion of Healing II, 1 Bucket, 1 Map {Minecraftia}, 1 Written Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Ringwood Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Zeppil Entry Pass}
[EXP: 48]
Inventory (Soul): 1 Diamond Axe [Sharpness V], 1 Iron Cleaver, 1 Diamond Pickaxe, 60 Iron Ingots, 19 Flint, 1 Flint and Steel, 5 Ender Pearls, 8 Gold Ingots, 11 Blocks of Diamond, 9 Emeralds, 10 Raw Salmon, 9 Pumpkin Seeds, 2 Cooked Porkchops, 15 Baked Potatoes, 1 Shears, 1 Bucket of Axolotl {Axolittle}, 1 Milk Bucket, 1 Diamond Helmet [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Iron Chestplate, 1 Diamond Leggings [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Boots [Protection IV, Feather Falling IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Crafting Table, 1 Jukebox, 1 Music Disc {chirp}, 1 Bed, 1 Furnace, 24 Torches, 22 White Wool, 61 Cobblestone, 14 Jungle Planks, 2 Bowls, 1 Armor Stand, 1 Map {Minecraftia}, 1 Written Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Ringwood Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Zeppil Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Exter Entry Pass}, 1 Splash Potion of Slowness {4:00}, 1 Splash Potion of Weakness {4:00}, 1 Potion of Invisibility {8:00}
[EXP: 41]
Cat-Face the Cat
Christopher Squawken the Parrot
Axolittle the Axolotl
Inventory (Noman): 1 Diamond Sword [Sharpness I], 1 Shield, 1 Diamond Chestplate {Severe Shield}, 1 Golden Boots {Stivali Magma}, 1 Leather Boots {Bottes Zephyr} [Dyed White], 1 Iron Helmet, 1 Diamond Chestplate, 1 Iron Leggings, 1 Iron Boots, 1 Diamond Pickaxe, 1 Flint and Steel, 10 Cobwebs, 1 Ender Chest, 17 Baked Potatoes, 3 Cooked Porkchops, 1 Milk Bucket, 1 Water Bucket, 5 Buckets, 1 Bed, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Written Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Zeppil Entry Pass}, 1 Paper {Exter Entry Pass}, 1 Map {Minecraftia}, 1 Paper {MarbleFinder; 1909 Oleg Street}, 1 Written Book {The Art of Peace}, 1 Written Book {Artifact List}, 1 Enchanted Golden Apple, 1 Splash Potion of Weakness {4:00}, 1 Potion of Invisibility {8:00}, 1 Splash Potion of Healing II, 1 Splash Potion of Healing II, 1 Splash Potion of Healing II, 1 Splash Potion of Healing II
[EXP: 35]
Inventory (Kalmarin): 1 Diamond Helmet [Protection III, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Chestplate [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Leggings [Protection IV, Unbreaking III], 1 Diamond Boots [Protection III, Unbreaking III], 1 Mob Head {Skeleton}, 1 Diamond Sword [Sharpness III, Unbreaking I], 1 Map {Paragon Minecraftia}, 1 Written Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Gold Citizenship Pass}, 1 Bow [Power I], 36 Arrows, 6 Ender Pearls, 16 Baked Potatoes, 1 Bed, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Furnace, 40 Torches, 31 Sand, 12 Cobblestone, 21 Oak Planks, 1 Bucket, 1 Lava Bucket, 1 Milk Bucket, 1 Potion of Invisibility {8:00}, 43 Coal, 1 Clock, 1 Compass, 1 Iron Pickaxe [Unbreaking I], 1 Wooden Pickaxe {Old Reliable} [Unbreaking III, Efficiency V], 1 Written Book {Meetup}
[EXP: 43]
Inventory (Anibal): 1 Crossbow {Buckner}, 1 Crossbow {Devers}, 64 Arrows, 38 Arrows, 16 Firework Rockets {Flight Duration: 1, Large Ball x 7, White x 7}, 11 Firework Rockets {Flight Duration: 1, Large Ball x 7, White x 7}, 6 Ender Pearls, 3 Cooked Mutton, 9 Apples, 18 Oak Planks, 1 Crafting Table, 1 Furnace, 1 Bed, 39 Torches, 21 Coal, 1 Map {Paragon Minecraftia}, 1 Written Book {Citizenship Information}, 1 Paper {Gold Citizenship Pass}, 1 Milk Bucket, 1 Potion of Invisibility {8:00}, 1 Potion of Invisibility {8:00}, 1 Iron Pickaxe, 3 Ender Chests, 41 Emeralds, 29 Cobblestone, 1 Bow [Flame I], 1 Bow [Power V], 1 Diamond Sword [Sweeping Edge III], 1 Diamond Sword [Smite V], 1 Diamond Sword [Fire Aspect II], 1 Diamond Sword [Bane of Arthropods V], 1 Written Book {Miner's Guild Notes}, 1 Diamond Pickaxe [Fortune III, Unbreaking III]
[EXP: 53]
AN: I had to do some research for the underground section before I wrote it down. Mainly, it involved randomly digging into the ground to see which noteworthy biome I'd stumble upon. Then I would write it for Noman and company.
The most interesting thing I came across was the wide-open, flat cavern with the deepslate pillars. It was full of Mobs, and I figured it would be a good chance to have the characters show off their badass fighting skills. With so many heavy-hitters on their team, Mobs don't even phase them anymore. Also, Noman is a flamethrower taking pages out of Serafina's book with those flare kicks.
Lotta background on the Miner's Guild and how they operate in case anyone cared. Meh.
Soul not remembering Dahlia from the Jolin Arc. A̶l̶m̶o̶s̶t̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶f̶i̶l̶l̶e̶r̶.̶
And Marble, making the real observations. The West Arc is just a reunion of the Dover Plains Arc, with Noman, Marble, Ciro, and Leadstripe.
FAV. FOLLOW. REVIEW. FORUM. DISCORD. TOFU.