by Mark Mulle
went to open it. I made sure to act as casually as possible. I didn't want to give the army men anything to worry about...yet. When I opened the door I saw that the army had only sent two officers to check up on me, amateurs. They asked to come into my lair, and I let them. I knew that I had everything to hide, but I was also confident that my plan was going to work. They wanted to look around the place, so I let them. I kept my eye on them the whole time, though.
Eventually, they found all of the weapons. They were pretty freaked out, even though they pretended not to be. “I don’t suppose that these are a personal collection for you, are they Mr. Ghast?” I didn’t really need to answer him. He already knew the answer to his own question.
The two officers turned back to me. Their own weapons were drawn, their arrows pointing right at me. “I was afraid that I would have to do this,” I muttered. I zapped the two officers on the spot before they could shoot. They weren’t hurt or anything, just stunned. Also, I made sure to zap them right on the top of their heads so that they would lose their memories. They would remember that they were here, but they wouldn’t remember what they had seen. It was the perfect plan.
When the officers woke up, I ushered them out of the house. I tricked them into thinking that the fumes from the magma made them sleepy, and that’s why they had just woken up. Luckily, they were silly enough to believe me. They left the lair, seeing everything, forgetting it all, and no longer suspecting a thing. If I’m right, the army should be back to ignoring me by the end of the week. I’m sure to make a lot of progress in my own army now, and I’ll make sure to write all about it.
Day Seventeen: Suspicions Erased
Dear Diary,
My plan seems to have worked flawlessly. I haven’t seen any officers around here at all. My zap trick must have worked just like I thought it would. Honestly, I was risking a lot by pulling that stunt, but I had a feeling that it might pay off. I’m just glad that I was right.
Now that the army is off of my back, I can move onto phase two of my grand plan. I have the soldiers, and now I just need to train them. Skeletons are usually naturally good with a bow and some arrows, but I feel like it is still important to check their skills, anyway. I’m planning on having at least a two-day training camp for all of my new recruits.
I’m sending out a letter today, that way everyone will know to show up. All of the weapons are already here, so it shouldn’t look too suspicious. I’ve also written down different times for the training sessions on some of the letters so not everyone comes at once.
I’ll test all of my troops tomorrow to see what they can do already. The day after that, I’ll train them in whatever they might need help with. After that...well, I guess I’ll just have to see how things are going. I’ll make sure to write about the training at least over these next two days.
Day Eighteen: Testing the Troops
Dear Diary,
Like planned, the troops all arrived at different times today so that we could all avoid suspicion from the Nether army. I waited until everyone was here to begin my testing, though. Right now, I only had Skeletons in the army. I’m hoping to enlist different types of monsters later, but the Nether army is made up of mostly Skeletons, so it’s a good start.
I already knew what I was capable of, so I only instructed the tests, but I didn’t take any. There were three tests that I made my troops take: an archery test, a stealth test, and a personality test that would figure out how loyal the soldiers were going to be for my army.
I made everyone take the personality tests first because I figured they would be the easiest. “There are no wrong answers to this test,” I told the soldiers as I handed out the papers. That was a lie, though. I knew what to do with the people who failed the test. Luckily, only a handful of the tests showed that some people weren’t loyal. I took them aside to ‘talk’ about their results, but instead I zapped them to erase their memories. I sent them out of the cave. The less they knew, the better.
Next, I need the stealth test. I had set up an obstacle course in the cave the night before. There were motion sensors in certain areas of the cave that would let out a loud buzzing noise if anyone was caught by the sensor. The cave was loud with the sound of buzzing for about the next hour. I’m really going to need to train these guys on this tomorrow...
Last was the archery test. I set up targets all over the cave. Some of the targets moved, while others just stayed in place. Each soldier had five chances to hit both targets. Most of the soldiers were able to do this, while a few were able to get it in just two tries. One soldier even managed to hit both targets with one arrow! I didn’t even know that something like that was possible!
So far, it seems as though I have a pretty good army. I don’t want a pretty good army, though. I want a great army! Now that the testing is over, the training will begin tomorrow. I’ll make sure to write all about it.
Day Nineteen: Training Day
Dear Diary,
The testing yesterday went pretty well, so today I’ve decided to move onto training my troops a little better. There’s no need for any loyalty training, and only a few of the soldiers are bad at archery, but they do seem to need a lot of help when it comes to being sneaky. Our army will probably need a lot of spy work, and that can’t be done until I have at least a handful of stealthy soldiers.
I’ve kept the obstacle course that I made the other day pretty much the same as it was during the testing session. I’ve added some harder things at the end, and I made it a little easier at the beginning. This way, my troops can gradually get better at getting sneaky.
I decided to float through the course first to show my troops how it was done. The first part of the course was a dimly lit path covered in crunchy leaves and squeaky wood. I managed to get through this area without anyone seeing me and without making more sound than a harmless rabbit would have made.
The second part of the course was a room in the cave with a bunch of fake walls around it. I stationed my soldiers around the room just like where real soldiers would be stationed at an army base. I snuck past most of them, but I have to admit that I did zap one guy who noticed me. Either way, I made it through phase two.
The last phase of the course was a laser room. If someone touched them the alarm would go off. In the center of all of the lasers were a bow and arrows. I got there, took the arrow, and shoot at the fake alarm system. That should show my troops how it’s done.
I watched as my soldiers went through the course, but in the end, only five managed to make it through the whole thing. Luckily, two of the five were my great friends the Skeleton twins. That’s enough for today. I’m tired out and my army needs to rest. I’ll write more tomorrow.
Day Twenty: I Want More!
Dear Diary,
My army is really starting to come together. I have loyal troops who are trained pretty well. For some reason, I still feel like something is missing from my army. When I wrote out my plan for fixing the Nether army, I had planned on adding new monsters to the army. In my army, it was only me and a few dozen Skeleton soldiers. I know that there is more that I can do with this army. Adding more monsters would give me the advantage that I’m looking for, but I don’t really know what kinds of monsters I should add. There are just so many to choose from.
Even though I have lived in the Nether for all of my life, I don’t actually know much about the different types of monsters. All monsters have their strengths and weaknesses, but I need monsters who can follow orders and kick butt.
Since the Nether army is ignoring me once more, I think I’m going to go out to look at monsters to try to recruit tomorrow. I probably won’t actually ask anyone to join, but I do want to get some new ideas. I know that there’s someone perfect that I’m missing for this army, but I just don’t know what it is. Hopefully, I can find the missing piece for my army. No matter what I find, I will be sure to write all about it tomorrow.
Day Twenty-One: Fiery Inspiration
Dear Diary,
I decided that it would be best to disguise myself before I went out to the town today. All I had to use was a pair of glasses with lenses that popped out and a wig that made me look like I had an afro. It was a silly costume, I admit that, but it definitely made me look different enough that others, especially those punks from the Nether army, wouldn’t recognize me.
I figured that I could sneak around the Nether, looking for some kind of monster that fit exactly what I wanted. I wanted something explosive, like a Creeper, but that could be trained better. I didn’t need something going off like dynamite. I needed someone who had that kind of raw power, but someone who could control it.
As I walked around the Nether, I saw all sorts of monsters. There were other Ghasts like me, a few zombies and some zombie pigman, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for. I thought that all hope was wrong. Maybe I would be better off just training someone how to plant dynamite or someone who can shoot a cannon. It would take some training, but just about anyone could do that.
I was about to call it quits when I finally found someone who fit what I was looking for. It was perfect actually. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before! What I need in my army was a Blaze! They were basically human fireballs. They were like superheroes, but I figured that I could use one for evil instead