AN: I actually finished this chapter before 261, as it's self-contained and easier to write (also shorter), so you're getting it within a day of 261.

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Chapter 262

Beats in the Dark

[Lenz]

I was in the underwater chamber of wool I had built for myself. There I sat, amongst the undersea ruins I had pinned all my hopes on.

Only to come up short.

My tantrum of despair had concluded, leaving me worn and despondent. I was emotionally, physically, and mentally drained, wanting nothing more than to roll onto my side and give up. My head hung slackly as I stared at my empty hands between my legs.

There was no rescue coming for me.

Every hope I chased had led me into a deeper pitfall. Just like now. I could not even reach the ocean's surface with how deep I had gone. Without soul sand to serve as a bubble column to propel me to the surface and replenish my oxygen, I would drown long before I reached the surface. Either that or get swarmed by the Guardians and Drowned that were amassing in the darkness of the undersea abyss. I had not planned for that, so desperate to get the planks that I had disregarded all else.

Now, I was reaping what I had sown, and being just one plank shy of my escape plan.

I did everything I could. I thought hopelessly to myself.

What was there to look forward to other than eating rotten flesh until starvation set it? I was just here to suffer. That was what Larkspur deigned.

...No. There is still one thing left - it would surely be much easier if I gave up.

I let out a low exhale, my body sinking deeper against the stone bricks of the ruins, my head hanging dejectedly.

I should already be empty inside. The thing that still will not disappear inside my heart will surely fade away soon.

I closed my eyes, wanting to just lose myself to insensate bliss.

It was a sad, but inescapable ending, for I could not survive alone.

"You're not alone."

I cracked my eyes open hearing the familiar voice. Inches from my legs were bare feet and sweeping purple hair. I traced them up with my eyes and found Z7 before me. She was looking down on me as if she was right where she needed to be.

"You're not alone." She repeated, her words having an echoing quality to them. Yet they were at the same time so paradoxically clear that they chased away all other noise, clearing my mind. "I'm here."

I shook my head bitterly, my eyes closing in impatience. "What is this...?"

"I'm here with you."

"No you are not. You are not Z7, and you are not here with me. You are not even speaking in Jibberish." I countered flatly. "This is not real. I am hallucinating... or dreaming. I am as alone as ever. You are not-"

She crouched down beside me, her hands wrapping around mine, and I swore I could feel her familiar touch and warmth.

"I'm right here." She repeated, her hands closing around mine, making it clench the iron dagger.

Her iron dagger.

"I'm right here with you. Sharing my strength with you whenever you use this." She patted my clenched fist, making sure I was holding the dagger tight. "You just need to keep hanging on."

My face scrunched up as a wave of weariness hit me. "Please stop." I begged. "Have I not struggled enough? I-I do not want to stand up anymore... just... just to get knocked down again! Tell me how I am supposed to make it!"

"You're strong, Lenz. Stronger than you ever thought you could be!" Z7 insisted as she nestled in at my side, sharing her warmth in an effort to rekindle the fire that had almost been snuffed out inside me. "Look at what you did when you believed in yourself. Outshooting a Bird of Prey, defeating two artifact wielders, going toe-to-toe with Teal_Larkspur and coming out on top when you were at your weakest. You just can't give up on yourself. Not when you have the strength to keep going."

"But..." I gave a helpless shrug as I gazed at my situation. "Look at where I am at. What hope is-?"

Suddenly, I was silenced as Z7 pressed her lips to mine. Memories of that night we shared came flooding back, and I felt warmth suffuse my entire body. All too soon, she was leaning back, her black eyes gazing at me passionately as she parted her curtain of hair.

"Do you wanna get back to me or do you wanna stay here?"

I blinked, dumbfounded by the question.

"I get it." She sympathized. "It's nice down here; the promise of nothing. You can just shut down the redstone, turn off the switches, close your eyes, and tune out everything. Nothing can hurt you if you stay. It's safe. You won't have another hope torn away when you don't try." She tilted my chin up with her finger. "But then what's the point of living? What's the point of going on if we're too afraid to fail?"

She gave a wry smile. "You some kind of dropout?"

"...No."

"I can't hear you. Say it louder."

"No!" I spoke firmly, my gaze hardening under my tinted glasses. My resolve was steeled. "I will not give up when things get tough. I promised Cobbert as much. And..." I looked to Z7's face, which seemed to glow in the torchlight. "And I want to get back to you. To hear your jokes. To indulge your sweet tooth. To teach you common. To grow together with you. I want it!"

"Then you'll just have to fight for it." Z7 affirmed. Again, her hand moved to mine, clutching it tightly around the dagger. "My strength is yours. You can have it all as long as you come back to me."

"I will. I promise." I nodded, meaning it.

Z7's smile relaxed into a neutral expression as her curtain of hair closed to cover her scarred face and she tilted her head down to whisper to the air.

"Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."

I snapped awake, the last words of my dream lingering in my mind.

I was still in my underwater chamber of wool, tired and sore. My Hunger Meter had begun to dwindle, which I quickly rectified with a forceful helping of rotten flesh.

I drew Z7's dagger, holding it before me as I imagined drawing a bit of strength from it.

As a man of science, I did not believe in spiritual connections or dream visitations. But I did believe my subconscious was telling me to grow a pair.

"What am I doing wasting time?" I asked myself as I got to my feet, slapping my cheeks until they went red. "I need to come up with a plan! No more loser crybaby talk!"

I broke a hole in my woolen chamber and swam out, barely feeling a stir of fear in the wake of my dream. I verified where the surrounding islands were located with regards to my woolen chamber and helped myself to breaking some strands of kelp, which I could cook into a more palatable food source. I periodically returned to my chamber to replenish my air, then stuck to it after I had gained enough kelp to keep me fed once the Guardians and Drowned started to take notice.

Then, it was time to allocate my planks. Eight was not enough for the table and boat, but it could be used for other things to make my situation more manageable.

"No matter what, I need to make the Crafting Table." I reasoned to myself, popping four of the spruce planks into a square and shaping a Crafting Table. I now had access to a three-by-three crafting grid.

The next decision was much harder to pull the trigger on. I needed to use two of my remaining planks to make four sticks. It would set me back on building my boat by two additional planks, but, with no planks in the vicinity, I had to do it. The sticks would be put to better use fashioned into a stone pickaxe. That was how I was going to reach the larger island from the bottom of the ocean: I was going to dig a tunnel under the seafloor.

"I can make a maximum of four pickaxes if I turn all the planks into sticks," I spoke aloud to organize my thoughts, "but I should make them as I mine, in case I come across iron or, if I am lucky, diamond."

I made my single stone pickaxe and readied the four torches I had, intending to recycle them throughout the tunnel as I mined. Just for protection, I tugged on the leather tunic I got from the chest and slid my dagger into my front belt pocket where I could Quickdraw it with ease.

Without any further delay, I swung down my pickaxe and began to mine in the direction of the larger island.

In my head, I calculated that I would need to dig around fourteen-hundred meters in a straight line to be under the island. A stone pickaxe could only break about one-hundred-and-thirty-one blocks before breaking. Meaning I would need more than one pickaxe to reach my destination.

Unfortunately, digging in a straight line had its complications as well when I was at the bottom of the ocean. I would constantly hit sand, the shifty material making up a good chunk of the seafloor and the region beneath, and it would collapse into my tunnel if I hit it, threatening to let water in. More than once, to get enough leeway, I had to dig stairs going thirty meters down in a cumbersome detour that cost me my first stone pickaxe before I finally reached a depth where the sand was minimal.

It was how I found myself digging into a new mineral entirely.

"Cobbled Deepslate." I read the material with a quizzical look. "...Where is the bedrock? I should have hit it by now."

I chalked it up as another Bounty Day addition and kept going. One stroke of luck was that I had found iron ore and coal ore. There was also a new material called [RAW IRON] whenever I dug up deepslate covered ore, but there was no difference smelting it compared to the iron ore. With all the cobblestone and cobbled deepslate I dug up, it was a simple matter to craft some furnaces and smelt the iron ore into a second, stronger pickaxe, as well as cook the strands of kelp I had into dried kelp snacks.

Compared to my diet of spider eyes and rotten flesh, it tasted divine, even if it did not restore much of my Hunger Meter.

Mining was hungry work, and it was a good thing I had an iron pickaxe, because the deepslate material was noticeably tougher to mine through than stone.

I have a surplus of iron and coal, but I am still limited by planks. I thought with a hint of worry. Even if I make two more iron pickaxes, it will not cover the whole distance. I need to find diamonds, or enough iron to make an anvil for repairing my picks, or a cave system to move through. Something to help bridge the gap.

I kept my ears open for Mob sounds - a sure sign of a nearby cave - and kept digging in the same direction through the deepslate. I had to keep doubling back to recycle my four torches so I could see what I was digging, though it posed a risk of Mobs spawning in the darkness behind me. I sealed the tunnel behind me with dirt where the light would not reach to avoid any surprises.

If Larkspur sneaks up on me down here, I will shit a brick.

It was a slow process, digging in silence, my ears alert for signs of Mobs. All too soon, my second pickaxe broke, forcing me to use my last two spruce planks to make four sticks, which I then turned into a third pickaxe, another iron, saving the last two sticks for last.

Come on. Throw me a bone, here.

That was when I heard the low groan of a Zombie, coming from below. I stopped what I was doing and listened quietly before hearing it again. It was unmistakably below me.

I adjusted my course, digging a crude stairway down through the deepslate, careful not to step into a massive cavern. It saved my life, since one of the stairs I dug opened up into nothing.

At first, I worried this was the Void under the old bedrock layer, and that the bedrock had merely been replaced by a breakable section of deepslate. But then, poking my head down, I caught flashes of orange light from lava pools and flows. They lit up the cavern in spots, illuminating the figures of Mobs marching aimlessly without anything to kill.

Wish I had a Potion of Night Vision right now. I lamented internally before changing my bearing and digging towards the cave wall. From there, I could dig down safely, making a staircase for myself.

I did not connect it to the cave floor, however. Not yet. I did most of the work, but then lingered on a perch, surveying the scene like a bird.

I rubbed my nose as I peered down at the assembled Mobs through my goggles, pondering the best way to clear them out. While some of their loot would prove useful - arrows, rotten flesh, gunpowder, string - it would be impractical to challenge a diverse group of Mobs, specializing in both long-range and short-range attacks, with only a dagger.

Instead, I used my supply of iron ingots to make a couple of buckets, which I then proceeded to fill with lava from the flows in the cave wall and dump from the cavern's ceiling. From there, the lava flowed down atop the Mobs, incinerating them in its molten grip.

Under the glow of the flowing lava, I was able to make out more of the cavern, and its unusual rock formations. They resembled stalagmites, and, upon a second look, I noticed stalactites on the ceiling. It was what I bucketed the lava source blocks against

This is definitely a Bounty Day thing. I concluded while awaiting the lava to burn all the Mobs. And since this is below bedrock, this is all new stuff, unexplored by Larkspur and the cultists. A whole new frontier.

With the Mobs dealt with, I bucketed back up the lava source blocks and slowly made my way down to a cleared cavern floor. It took a long while for the lava to disperse, allowing me to take in the surroundings. The cavern opened up downward, forming a large, open, hollowed out structure; A cheese cave, resembling the hollowed out holes of a wedge of swiss cheese. It was largely made up of deepslate, with plenty of stalagmites and stalactites dotted about. The silence was broken by the dripping of water from the stalactites above, forming small pools amongst the stalagmites. There were also ores. Ores galores. Lapis, iron, gold, redstone (huzzah!), some earth-green and brown ore that I later discovered was copper.

And diamonds. Honest to goodness diamonds were dotted in places where the lava cleared.

"Sweet Repeaters, YES!" I cheered, my voice echoing in the vast caves and scaring the bats. "Something is finally going right for a change."

I mined up enough diamonds and quickly combined them with my last two sticks to make a diamond pickaxe. Diamond could hold out somewhere between fifteen-hundred and sixteen-hundred blocks, and I still had a relatively fresh iron pickaxe still with me. Finding enough iron in the exposed walls of the cave, I would definitely have enough for the anvil, meaning I could repair my picks at the cost of EXP and a few spare bits of iron or diamond. I would not need more sticks. Not to mention, I could make use of the ample open space and travel by cave, reserving my pickaxes for only when it was necessary.

Making my way to the other island did not sound so implausible anymore.

I was actually smiling as I celebrated my fortune, my good spirits persisting as I dug up redstone, more for myself than any kind of trap. My only real concern was food, but then I just needed to kill some isolated Zombies once my dried kelp stores ran out.

Getting gunpowder, arrows, and a bow was my next goal, as they would prove an indispensable part of my arsenal. I could go back to fighting at a safe distance, even if I had no intention of hunting for Larkspur. She had the Voda Shlem and the Wonder Wings on her side.

As I moved through the vast caves, and the last of the lava began to recede - it was taking its time to fully dissipate - I noticed something else.

Something deeper down, off the ledge the lava flowed. About a twenty to thirty meter drop down.

There was blue light down there.

I narrowed my eyes and knelt upon the ledge as I looked down. The slow-flowing lava illuminated part of it, but there was something down there. A silhouette that looked like... like a raised walkway, made out of bricks of some kind. It was outlined by the blue lights dotted about, and it was different from what the deepslate looked like.

And there was blue fire.

I remembered Larkspur mentioning a Bounty Day thing about blue torches.

I tried to glean more, but the lava was dissipating too quickly from where it pooled. Whatever was down there was once more largely shrouded in a darkness broken only by dotted lights of pale blue.

I rubbed my chin. What are the odds that something dangerous is down there?

I tapped my fingers on the deepslate beneath me.

What are the odds there is something down there I can use? Maybe planks untouched by Larkspur.

I considered it very carefully, my gaze straying from the underground structure to the stretch of cave that opened up to my side.

...

"...Just a quick peek."

I bucketed down some water from a nearby pool and floated down carefully, my eyes struggling to adjust to the darkness. The water spread and pooled to fit into a small depression, and I lifted myself out of it and took my first step onto this unusual new underground biome.

Something squished under my feet. My gaze tilted down as I set one of my limited torches, illuminating the material. It was dark blue green, and as I crouched down to run a hand through it, I found it to have a slightly fuzzy, squishy texture. It reminded me of the mold grown on bread, the comparison similar from the texture down to the sickly color. And then, I was reminded of something else; the dark blue green was the same shade and texture of the sound-detecting slab-sized plant in my last Bounty Day vision. Perhaps they were related.

The moldy material was all over the place from what I could see in the torchlight. There were two different kinds: a block variant that dropped EXP and nothing else when mined, and a vein variant that grew from the block variant and spread around like grass, only it grew on any old block, not just dirt. The deepslate, an ash-like soft block called [TUFF], a bumpy mineral block called [DRIPSTONE BLOCKS]. It grew on all of it.

As far as I could tell, it was a mold that dropped EXP when mined. I needed EXP for repairing tools anyway, and it was less risky than hunting Mobs, so I helped myself.

I came across another strange block - a few of them in fact, at the heart of the dark blue green mold blocks. It looked like a block-sized frosted cake, only with icing made of that same dark blue green mold. It glowed dimly, dispersing the darkness. I tried breaking it to see what it was called, but it only left behind EXP, just like the other mold blocks.

But then, as I was examining another mold cake block, something fascinating happened. A Zombie had wandered close, aiming to attack me, and I aggressively stabbed it to death with my dagger. I had to be aggressive to not let the Mobs have a chance at a counterattack.

What was fascinating was that the Mob's EXP did not drop. Instead, it appeared like the mold cake block sucked up the EXP of the slain Zombie, which then caused a light blue ripple and embers to bloom from the block before it then produced more of that mold in its vicinity. To be precise, the mold veins spread onto unoccupied blocks, and the mold veins turned to mold blocks.

The mold thrived on EXP.

So then, the EXP I got from breaking the dark blue green mold blocks was originally from a slain Mob. And the blocks had once been deepslate, tuff, and other similar blocks before the mold transformed them into more mold.

It was an interesting phenomenon... and a scary thought. I remembered reading about how Dover Plains feared Mycelium for how it spread and ruined fertile farmland. If those mold blocks ever got to the surface and absorbed enough EXP, would they turn all blocks in Minecraftia into mold?

Just another resource doomsday scenario to worry about. I sighed. Thankfully, it did not look like the moldy cake blocks that absorbed EXP and spread mold could be mined, and it was trapped in this deep, dark biome. Maybe a Silk Touch enchantment would change that, but I had no intention of taking the invasive organism back with me to the surface.

With my cursory investigation concluded, I moved on to where I spied the silhouette of a ruin in the dim blue light. My eyes had not deceived me; it was a walkway - a palatial structure of bricks the same shade of the deepslate and... wool? Yes, it was wool. Gray and light blue, which seemed to match the décor of this place. Lot of grays and blues.

As for the source of the light, it was a blue, metal box no larger than a flower pot. A lantern, with a cold, blue flame within.

It was an item that could be broken, and I quickly did so to have another light source to work with. Fittingly enough, the lantern was called a [SOUL LANTERN].

I smiled fondly. Why do I get the feeling Soul will claim this was named after him? He will call it a 'Me Lantern'.

I grabbed a couple of lanterns off the ruined structure and continued to explore, breaking off bits and pieces of the ruin to see what it was made of. Aside from the odd choice of building material that was blue, light blue, cyan, and gray wool and carpets, everything was made of deepslate. [POLISHED DEEPSLATE], [POLISHED DEEPSLATE STAIRS], [POLISHED DEEPSLATE SLABS], [CHISELED DEEPSLATE], [POLISHED DEEPSLATE WALLS], [DEEPSLATE BRICKS], [DEEPSLATE TILES], [DEEPSLATE BRICK WALLS], [DEEPSLATE TILE WALLS], [DEEPSLATE BLACKJACK], [DEEPSLATE HOOKERS], etc. I sampled them, then tossed them since they were nothing more than aesthetic building materials. The stonemason from my home kingdom would be in heaven seeing it all. Considering deepslate was more ample down here, just as cobblestone was more ample above, I supposed it made sense for the place to be built out of it. I actually had to toss the stacks of cobbled deepslate I had dug up to make room for more useful stuff.

But this place is a structure generated by a Bounty Day. I thought, taking note of how vast the ruins seemed to spread. A very, very big structure generated by a Bounty Day. It could have been made by anything, so why does it matter if it is sensible or not? What is even the point of this place?

I spied a chest in a ruin a little ways away from the raised walkway. As I walked towards it, I was startled out of my skin by a low-pitched clicking sound. I whirled on it, my dagger at the ready...

...and found the sound-detecting slab-sized plant from my Bounty Day vision. The leaves atop it swayed lazily, only speeding up their shaking, lighting up, and letting out a clicking warble when I took a loud step closer.

I smiled as my trained eyes caught sight of the tiny blue green sound wave that emitted off my footsteps and was received by the plant's leaves, making it glow. "Well, hello there, my lovely new redstone addition. What are your secrets?"

With every word I spoke, blue green sound waves would emit and be received by the leaves of the sound-detecting plant. It could sense the vibrations in the air.

I smiled giddily, forgetting this strange new biome, and placed some of my amassed redstone dust beside the sound-detecting plant. Even placing a block caused vibrations, which the plant received, and which then caused the adjacent redstone dust to light up.

"You are redstone compatible. That is awesome." I grinned, fascinated by the plant. It was a mold block like the others, spawning when EXP was dropped in the presence of the mold cake block. It could not be obtained, to my disappointment, and only dropped EXP when broken.

There were dozens of them all around. And one cool thing I noticed was that, when I was walking on wool, the leaves of the sound-detecting plant could not detect the vibrations. Seemed like the wool muffled it, like stuffing cotton in your ears.

Wish I could bring this stuff up, but I bet I need Silk Touch. I lamented sadly, thinking of all the redstone experimentation I would be missing out from. I also just wished I had a name for the thing.

Then I opened the chest I spied - triggering several sound-detecting plants in the process - and came face to face with the very material.

"Hooooooooaah!" I gasped in excitement - earning a chorus of clicking warbles - before I dove into the chest, my legs kicking behind me. I picked up four of the item, called a [SCULK SENSOR].

"Sculk...? Is that what that dark blue green mold is? Sculk?"

The word sculk meant to move or hide in a secret way, especially with bad intentions. The sculk did creep about the ground, and it was dark, and it sucked up EXP, and had the potential to replace all blocks in the world. Maybe that was why the word was used to describe it.

"So a sculk sensor, sculk blocks, sculk veins, and a sculk... what? Catalyst? Yes, a sculk catalyst. That sounds fitting." I decided. It gave me names for all the blocks I was encountering down there.

There was more in the chest than just the four sculk sensors, though. No planks, unfortunately, but it had bones, a few dozen light purple [AMETHYST SHARDS] which I had no idea what to do with, an enchanted book with an enchantment I had never heard of before - Swift Sneak II - and lastly a food item called [GLOW BERRIES].

I popped one of the bright orange berries that seemed to glow in the dark in my mouth and enjoyed their unique sweetness. I was about to polish off the other one before I stopped myself.

...I bet Z7 would like this. I thought, remembering her particular fondness for sweets. I smiled to myself and stored the glow berry deep in my backpack, promising to share it with her once I made it out of this ordeal in one piece.

As I continued my searching, I marveled at how relaxing of a time I was having. In fact, aside from a few Zombies and Skeletons that had wandered in, no Mobs were spawning in the darkness, which was unheard of. Mobs always spawned in the dark, and there was so much darkness enveloping the ruins where the blue light of the soul lanterns would not reach.

So what was up?

Of course, in Minecraftia, these questions had a way of having their answers organically revealed to you, and when you least expected it.

In my case, it came when I spied wooden planks on one of the structures of the ruin. They were dark oak planks. Dozens of them. Plenty enough for a boat!

"Oh, yes! Sculk Sensors, YES!" I cheered, my new redstone vocabulary word triggering a couple nearby sculk sensors.

And one echoing siren.

I stopped on my heel and turned, finding the new noise very off-putting. There, amongst a couple of sculk sensors, was a new block I had never seen before. It resembled the sculk sensor in its slab-like design, only it had ribbed corners of bone that climbed skyward, and it let loose rings of sound waves as the nearest sculk sensors transmitted my vibrations to it. It also had swirling cyan contents on the surface emitting the siren sound waves.

I blinked at the mysterious block, lost in my scrutiny of it.

Then I heard a cracking. A loud, violent cracking of solid rock from nearby. I slowly turned towards the source, only for darkness to creep at the edge of my vision, like my tinted goggles were slowly fogging up black. I wiped at my eyes only to discover a black particle effect inflicted upon me, my vision tunneling.

The cracking sound grew louder as something big emerged from the ground nearby.

I ran.

I could not see what had spawned, but I could feel that something terribly monstrous and ominous had spawned in that place, and that there was a reason that place was untouched by other Mobs. I ran towards where those planks were, intending to grab them and get away as fast as I could.

I heard reverberating whines behind me, like something unnatural had taken notice of me. It was like nothing I had heard before, and I began to feel fear taking root as heavy footfalls started to pursue me.

They were accompanied by a slow heartbeat. A terrifying beat in the dark.

My own heartbeat was twice as fast as I found the dark oak planks amongst the ruins with my darkened vision and proceeded to saw into them with my dagger. I broke one, then two.

The heavy footfalls and heartbeats in the dark grew louder and faster. The thing was running for me now, and I could still not see it.

Come on, come on! I internally cried, my fingers fumbling the dagger before I sawed off a third plank, followed by a heavy dark blue limb smashing against the deepslate ruins an inch from my head. "WAUGH!" I screamed in alarm, falling back and away from the monster as its angered whines echoed after me. It got caught in the ruins, and I quickly scampered off with my three planks as it went around to get at me. There were more planks back there, but I did not care. My every thought was flight. Escape from whatever was chasing me. Whatever I had summoned. Darkness was still encroaching on my vision, and I only caught brief glimpses of dark blue and bone. Of something big, dyed in the color of sculk.

I triggered about a dozen sculk sensors as I ran, wanting to take what planks I got and never look back. I could not even find the waterfall I came in on, my vision too dark to see anything past fourteen blocks. Everything looked the same!

Again, the heavy footfalls sped up, accompanied by the frantic heartbeats that matched my own. The thing was on my trail again. It let loose an angry, reverberating roar that terrorized me to my core. Larkspur!? Who was that!? This thing was ten times more terrifying, and it was fast and big while Larkspur was just fast and lithe!

Suddenly, behind me, I heard the footfalls slow to a stop as I crossed over the wool of some ruins. But then, the monster made a noise like it was taking a deep inhale, the volume increasing into a fevered crescendo until-

*THOOOOM!*

I flew forward as something powerful struck my back, a sound like thunder reverberating through the ruins I was hiding behind and ringing my ears and bones, ripping away all but one-and-a-half of my Hearts and sending me face-first into a wool section of the ruins, where I slid to a stop on my front, feeling like someone had taken tiny hammers to my bones. I curled up in agony, my forehead pressed to the soft wool beneath me as my only thought was to get far away from whatever attack had struck me, ignoring all obstacles to do so.

Then I heard it.

*SNIFF SNIFF*

I felt something big looming right behind me. I froze. I could not move. I was freezing up out of fear, unable to do anything as it sniffed the air. Its heartbeat was slow again, and I heard clicking reminiscent of sculk sensors coming from its direction as it sniffed the air more deeply.

It was sniffing for me.

I did not move. I could barely breathe. This was surely the end. I was low enough that one simple hit from what I had seen of its massive, Iron Golem sized limbs could finish me.

Its heavy footfalls grew closer. I stayed rooted to the ground, too afraid to turn, too afraid to run, too afraid to utter a single noise.

Something big brushed past me by a few meters to the left. My eyes tracked its lumbering, even while I was frozen in fear at the sight of it.

It turned to 'look' at me, with a face that had neither eyes nor nose. Its face was just a large, gaping, toothless maw, curled into a rectus of a frown. It sniffed the air deeply through that maw, the antennae like antlers on its head clicking as it sought a sound.

My mouth worked noiselessly as I trembled on the spot, horrified by whatever I was looking at. Its body looked like bleached bone covered in sculk. I could see an exposed spine on its back, and an open, eight-pronged ribcage with a cyan organ that glowed in the outline of a heart when it beat. It was more a soul than a heart that beat within, and the whole Mob looked like a skeletal brute covered in sculk. It lumbered about in a swaying motion, and it was as big as an Iron Golem. Probably as powerful as one too if its heavy limbs were any indication. It had two moldy antennae on its head, which looked like antlers, and they clicked like a sculk sensor as it attempted to detect noise. Like the echolocation of bats.

...Is it blind? I wondered internally, careful not to utter a word as the dangerous Mob continued to sniff for me and listen for me. I was still frozen on my hands and knees as the thing turned away, 'looking' for me elsewhere, beyond where my darkened vision could perceive. What made it lose track of me...?

I glanced down and got my answer when I saw the wool I was situated on. Suddenly, its presence around the palatial ruins made a lot more sense. It was to muffle noise, much like how it muffled vibrations for the sculk sensors.

That Mob had a sculk sensor on its head, and it was summoned by that siren. By noise. It hunted by sound. Attacked by sound too if that sonic boom that struck me was any indication.

Slowly, like a sudden movement would shatter me like glass, I rose to my feet without alerting the Mob, my slight movements muffled by the light blue wool beneath me. I did not set off any sculk sensors. I did not set off the Mob.

The... Sculker.

As good a name as any for a Mob you had to creep around to avoid conflict with.

Another addition to Cobbert's Mob book. I thought, calming down noticeably and placing a hand over my chest to steady my heart. The Sculker's heart continued to beat in the darkness, even if I could not see it clearly in whatever darkness effect it had afflicted me with.

After a few moments of fruitless searching, the Sculker apparently gave up, bending down headfirst into the ground before burrowing with the same sound of cracking stone that heralded it. Its stumpy, tree trunk legs kicked in the air as it burrowed out of sight.

I waited for a few seconds with bated breath until the Darkness effect on me had ended, my vision clearing. I sagged onto the wool and breathed out a sigh of relief.

A siren shrieked as my loud sigh was picked up by sculk sensors, transmitting the sound. Darkness crept around my vision as a large cracking of stone sounded nearby, the hulking Sculker burrowing back up.

I did not care for the planks anymore. I got three. Even if it was not enough for a boat, I would rather support my continuing to live. I found my waterfall and left the palatial ruins of that deep, dark place while the Sculker below sniffed and clicked for signs of me, and instead settled for a noisy Skeleton that had wandered in amongst the sculk sensors. I watched warily as one swing of the Sculker's thick arms was enough to crush the Skeleton into dust.

I hoped I would never again have to return, but I could never forget how there was a treasure trove of planks down there. Planks I would need to craft myself a boat.

I would love to see Larkspur try to fight that thing. I thought to myself with great enmity towards the Lieutenant. My harsh face softened as I considered such an encounter... and contemplated the probability of successfully making it so.

Now there is a thought. After all, Larkspur never knows when to shut up.

Inventory (Lenz): 1 Iron Dagger, 1 Crafting Table, 4 Furnaces, 1 Diamond Pickaxe, 1 Iron Pickaxe, 59 Iron Ingots, 4 Buckets, 15 Copper Ingots, 20 Brown Wool, 30 Green Wool, 25 Gravel, 1 Stick, 12 Rotten Flesh, 17 Dried Kelp, 1 Glow Berries, 1 Ender Pearl, 4 String, 7 Bones, 2 Arrows, 8 Redstone Dust, 5 Diamonds, 64 Cobbled Deepslate, 48 Cobbled Deepslate, 2 Prismarine Crystals, 23 Amethyst Shards, 4 Sculk Sensors, 1 Enchanted Book [Swift Sneak II], 12 Sugar Cane, 3 Ink Sacs, 9 Soul Lanterns, 3 Dark Oak Planks, 1 Chest, 5 Gold Nuggets, 61 Coal, 1 Leather Tunic

[EXP: 30]

AN: Alright, I have a gripe. How the heck would anyone know to call the Warden a Warden when all it drops upon killing it is a Sculk Catalyst? Also, Lenz trying to name everything was also hard since the Sculk is everywhere, but can't be obtained by mining it unless with Silk Touch.

So, yeah, Lenz stumbles upon an Ancient City. He has a habit of stumbling upon underground structures leading to sinister entities. Must be congenital.

I had to do quite a bit of testing on what being in an Ancient City feels like, both in Creative and Survival mode. I also had to risk my life running from a Warden to see if you could survive a sonic blast like Lenz did. Turns out you can, and that it goes through Netherite armor like it was butter. I also needed to experience the Darkness Effect tied to the Warden, not to be confused with the Blindness Effect. Wardens are freaking scary, man. Don't mess.

There also are planks in an Ancient City. A lot of them. Perfect for making boats, but then you run the risk of alerting an eldritch horror scavenging them. Not great. And Lenz didn't get nearly enough planks for a boat, but maybe enough for something else.

Make note of his Inventory, as MacGyver is his middle name.

FAV. FOLLOW. REVIEW. PM. FORUM. DISCORD. SKITTLES.