“Why are you doing that?” Jodi asked when Harper picked up a sapling.
“This is how I always start a new game¸” Harper said. “I gather as many resources as possible.”
“I’ve never played Survival mode¸” Jodi admitted. “In Creative, you start with everything you need. And you also don’t spend half your time hiding from monsters.”
Harper said, “Eventually we’ll be able to craft weapons. And armor. We won’t have to hide forever.”
“But for now¸ let’s be careful¸” said Morgan. “Most hostile mobs spawn at night. But you never know….”
“And we can’t be sure that this place works exactly like a normal game of Minecraft¸” Harper added. “Doc kept mentioning glitches.”
She saw a purple flower growing beneath a tree. It was a bit out of the way, so she hurried over to pick it up. But her hand passed right through it.
Jodi was watching. “Is that a glitch?” she asked.
“No¸” Harper said. “My inventory is just full.” She walked back to rejoin the others. “It’s the first lilac I’ve seen. But we don’t really need it. Flowers are only good for making dyes.”
“But I might want a purple bed!” said Jodi. “Really purple.”
“And indeed¸ such delicate beauty is a reward in itself¸” Po added in his smarmiest wizard voice.
“Huh?” said Jodi.
“He said flowers are pretty¸” said Harper.
“I’ll grab it,” Jodi said. “I have plenty of inventory space.”
As Jodi stepped through the trees, Harper saw something strange. Red lights moved in the shadows beneath the trees. They almost looked like a car’s brake lights. But there were no cars here.
“Spider!” Harper said. “Jodi¸ don’t panic.”
Harper knew that a spider wouldn’t attack unless it was attacked first. Unfortunately, Jodi didn’t know that.
Jodi panicked. She punched the spider, and it flared with red light as it took damage. Then it turned its bright red eyes on her.
“Now you’ve done it¸” Morgan said. “Run fast!”
Jodi ran, and the spider followed.
Morgan hurried over and smacked it on the abdomen.
The spider flared red. Now it turned its eyes on Morgan.
“Harper!” Morgan cried. “We need a sword!”
“I’m working on it!” Harper yelled. She double-clicked with her eyes to pull up her inventory. Everything was a mess—she hadn’t had time to put things in any sort of order. “I need the crafting table,” she said, passing her eyes over everything she’d collected. “There! One sword¸ coming up.”
Once she’d placed the table, she selected two sticks and a wood plank.
Clunk.
She hadn’t made a sword. She’d made a shovel.
“Oops!” she said. “I got the recipe wrong.”
“That will still work!” cried Morgan. “I’m coming your way!”
Morgan turned toward her. The spider was on his tail.
“Get ready¸” he said.
Morgan passed her. The spider was just behind him. She swung the shovel.
The spider flared red. It flopped onto its back and disappeared in a puff of pixelated smoke.
“Whew¸” Morgan said. “I’m glad we don’t run out of breath here.”
“Good job, team!” said Po. “Wait, I mean: ever do the bonds of friendship vanquish darkest evil!”
“What did it drop?” Jodi said.
“Spider eye¸” Harper said brightly. “That might come in handy.” She reached for it but couldn’t pick it up. It slipped right through her grasp. “Oh¸ right. My inventory is still full.”
“You should hold on to that mighty shovel,” said Jodi. “And I’ll carry all the materials you want.” She frowned at the spider eye. “Even the gross ones.”
Po scanned the trees for any other dangers. All was still and silent.
“That spider almost got me¸” Morgan said.
“And me¸” Jodi said. “But what would it have done to me if it had caught me?”
“We don’t know,” Harper said. “If we run out of health here…what happens to us in real life?”
“I know you love to learn new things, Harper,” said Po. “But that is one mystery I’d rather not solve.”
“I remember how to make a sword now,” Harper said. “Maybe I should make one. Or four.”
Morgan pointed to her shovel. “Or maybe you should make a few other tools¸” he said. “Do you still have your pickaxe?”
“Why?” asked Po. “Aren’t swords better for fighting monsters?”
“Yes¸” said Morgan. “But other tools are better for digging. And I think it’s time we went underground.”
* * *
They discussed Morgan’s plan during lunch the next day at school.
“We need to build a real shelter,” he said. “It’s the best way to defend against hostile mobs.”
“A home base. That sounds like a fun project,” Po said enthusiastically.
“Not just a home base,” Morgan said. “A castle.”
“We’ll need a lot of materials,” Harper said.
Morgan nodded. “Right. I found a blueprint online, and a list of supplies. For starters, we’ll need eight hundred blocks of cobblestone. I’d like to get some glass panes for the windows, if we can find sand.” He paused. “Wait. Where’s Jodi? She was supposed to meet us here.”
Po was the first to spot her. She was walking their way with a tray of food. And Ash Kapoor was with her.
“Hi, Ash!” Po said loudly. He said it to be polite…but also to warn Morgan. Obviously, Doc’s VR goggles were a big secret.
Morgan scrambled to put the blueprint away, but he wasn’t very sneaky about it. Ash gave him a funny look.
“Hi, everybody,” Ash said. “Jodi invited me to sit with you. I hope that’s okay.”
“Sure,” said Harper.
“Of course,” Po said. But he saw Morgan scowling. He hoped Ash didn’t; that wouldn’t make her feel very welcome.
Morgan squirmed in his seat. “Jodi, did you forget? We were supposed to talk about our…project today.”
“Oh, what kind of project?” Ash asked. “For school? Maybe I can help.”
“No, it’s…” Morgan hesitated. “It’s like a secret after-school project.”
“Oh. Okay,” Ash said. She and Jodi were still standing there, holding their lunch trays. There was a moment of awkward silence.
Jodi rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she said. “You guys have your meeting. Ash and I will sit over there and have a lovely lunch. Feel free to join us when you get tired of whispering secrets that don’t even need to be kept secret.”
Jodi stormed off, and Ash followed her. Morgan rolled his eyes. Po thought doing things unexpectedly must run in the family.
“Jodi’s right,” Po said. “We don’t have to keep this a secret from everybody. We have two extra sets of goggles, remember?”
Morgan shook his head. “The more people who know a secret, the less secret it is. And if the adults find out we have a portal to an actual Minecraft world, I’m sure they’ll take it away.”
“It’s not magical,” Harper insisted. “It’s science.”
“Whatever. I just think we should keep this between us for a little longer,” Morgan said. “Deal?”
Po and Harper looked at each other. They were less certain. But they said, “Deal.”
“Good,” Morgan said. He pulled out his blueprint. “Now let’s make a plan for tonight.”
“Who took all the obsidian?” Jodi asked. She’d had it all set aside in a treasure chest. But now the chest was empty.
“Not me¸” said Harper.
“Don’t look at me¸” said Mor
gan.
“Po?” Jodi asked.
“He’s not here yet¸” Morgan said. He sounded annoyed that Po was tardy.
They had been working on the castle all week. It wasn’t going well.
“Wait a minute,” Morgan said. “What do you need obsidian for? There’s no obsidian in the plans.”
“But it looks nice¸” Jodi said. “And we don’t have enough cobblestone. I thought we could replace some of it with obsidian. Maybe we could have a whole tower that’s shiny and black.” She closed her eyes and pictured it. “Oh, a black tower with diamonds like glittering stars! We can call it the night tower.”
Morgan hopped in frustration. “We don’t have time for stuff like that¸” he said. “Just follow the blueprint¸ Jodi.”
“I don’t remember the blueprint.” And she didn’t—at least, not exactly.
That was one big problem with Morgan’s plan: they couldn’t bring the blueprint into the game. Everyone tried to memorize the plans, but they all remembered the details a little differently.
“Harper¸ what are you working on?” Morgan asked.
She had been laying redstone dust along the ground. “I’m making a switch mechanism for the door¸” she replied.
“A switch?” Morgan said. “It’s a door! It doesn’t need to be complicated.”
“But it’s better this way¸” Harper argued.
Morgan huffed. “I suppose you don’t remember the blueprint¸ either.”
“Oh, I remember it,” Harper said. “I’m just improving it.”
There was a loud pop, and Po appeared nearby. At least, Jodi assumed it was Po. Today he’d chosen a skin that made him look like a construction worker.
“Hey!” he said. “What did I miss?”
“Morgan is having a meltdown¸” Jodi answered.
“Where have you been, Po?” Morgan asked.
“I told you I had basketball practice¸” Po answered. “I got here as soon as I could.” He slapped his forehead. “But I forgot to look at the blueprint. I have no idea what I’m supposed to be building today.”
“Let’s all just focus on mining¸” Morgan said. “Okay? We need a lot more cobblestone to finish the castle.” He pointed at the work in progress. So far, they had two gray towers. These would become the castle’s turrets.
“Is the new turret shorter than the other one?” Po asked. “Is that on purpose?”
Morgan sighed.
“Maybe a castle is too difficult for a first project¸” Harper said. “We have plenty of cobblestone for a nice cottage.”
“I won’t admit defeat¸” Morgan said. “Not here. Not in Minecraft. I’m supposed to be good at Minecraft.”
Jodi felt bad for her brother. He had his heart set on a castle. So she would help him make a castle. (Even if he didn’t really deserve her help.)
“Okay¸” she said. “Back to digging for stone.” She raised her pickaxe high, then brought it down and struck the ground beneath her feet.
“No¸ wait!” Morgan cried. But he was too late.
The pickaxe broke through the ground. And beneath it—there was nothing. Just blank black space.
Jodi fell.
Everyone screamed her name. Jodi screamed, too. But not for very long. She fell only the length of four blocks before landing on solid ground.
“I’m okay!” she said.
“What were you thinking?” Morgan said. She could see him above her, peering down into the hole. “You never dig straight down. That’s the first rule of Minecraft!”
“I thought there were no rules in Minecraft,” Jodi argued. “And besides¸ you can fly in Creative mode. So this isn’t usually a problem for me.”
“You can fly in Creative mode?” Po asked. “Dude, Creative mode is sounding better and better.”
Harper called down, “You can get yourself out¸ Jodi. Just jump up and place a block of dirt beneath your feet.”
Jodi did as Harper instructed. It didn’t take her long to reach ground level. But when she did, she saw that the sun was low in the sky.
“Guys¸ we lost track of time. It will be dark soon.”
“And we’re still not ready for any hostile mobs that might show up,” Morgan said. “We’d better head inside.”
They entered the nearest tower. It was partially built into a hill, so it was half underground. That made it bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. Winding stairs led up to higher floors with windows.
“Where are the beds?” asked Po, looking around the large underground room.
“We put them in the other tower¸” Jodi said brightly.
“There’s supposed to be a passage connecting the towers¸” Morgan said. “So we can go back and forth.”
“Oops¸” Harper said. “I thought that was too boring. I was going to put in an automated mine cart instead. But I haven’t had time.”
Jodi put her ear to the door. “I don’t hear anything out there. We could make a run for the other tower.”
“No¸ it’s too risky¸” Morgan said. “Let’s just tunnel through.”
Harper pointed to the far wall. “The hallway is supposed to go right over there.”
Morgan walked in the other direction. “I think this way will be more direct.”
“I don’t think we should just tunnel through the wall¸” Harper said.
“Yeah, won’t that direction take us through the hill?” Po asked Morgan. “What if there’s a mineshaft full of mobs on the other side?”
“It’ll be fine¸” Morgan said.
Po and Harper looked at each other with slightly sour expressions. Jodi knew what they were thinking. This must have felt like their school science project all over again.
Morgan hefted his pickaxe. He removed two cobblestones and the dirt just behind them.
And then water gushed in through the opening.
They all screamed as the flood pushed them against the wall. The tower quickly began to fill with water.
“Keep swimming!” Morgan cried. “Keep your head up!”
They all swam over to the stairs and started climbing. They managed to stay above the rising water until they reached the top, where Harper broke through the ceiling with her pickaxe. They exited through the hole she made.
Once they were safely on the roof, Harper sighed. “I think we’ll have to make a bridge to the other tower. I hope we have enough material.”
Jodi pulled Morgan aside. “This is a disaster! You keep insisting that we follow you. But when your teammates tell you not to do something, you do it anyway! What if that had been lava instead of water?”
Morgan frowned. “You’re right. We got lucky. And this whole thing is a mess.”
“Fortunately¸ I have a solution in mind¸” said Jodi. “And her name is Ash.”
“Ash?”
Jodi nodded. “Remember her tree house? A whole group of scouts worked on it. Ash made sure all the pieces fit. If she can do that, she can help the four of us put a castle together.”
“I don’t think we need her help¸” Morgan snapped.
“Well¸ I do. And I bet if you put it to a vote¸ it would be three against one.”
Morgan turned to watch Harper and Po. They were making a simple bridge to the other tower. One wrong move, and they would plummet all the way to the ground. At this height, who knew what the fall might do to them? Jodi was in no hurry to find out what depleted health would mean in this version of the game.
She knew exactly what her brother was thinking. He didn’t want to bring Ash into their secret club. But he also understood that nothing was more important than the safety of their friends.
“All right¸” Morgan sighed. “I’ll ask Ash for help.”
Morgan grumbled all the way to Ash’s house. But a promise was a prom
ise. He would ask her if she wanted to join them for some Minecraft. He’d leave out the super-cool, possibly supernatural details. With any luck, the local Wildling Scouts would be keeping Ash too busy for another after-school activity.
He rang the doorbell. He waited only five seconds before deciding no one was home. He turned to walk away.
But then the door opened a crack. Ash peered at him from inside.
She looked…strange.
Her hair was all mussed. She had dust bunnies clinging to her clothing. There was a frantic gleam in her eyes.
“Morgan!” she said. “What are you doing here? Who sent you? What do you know?”
“Uh. Nothing?” said Morgan. “Are you okay?”
Ash didn’t answer. Her lower lip quivered.
“Ash, what’s going on?”
“If I tell you,” she said, “do you promise not to freak out?”
Morgan was very confused. “Why would I freak out?”
“Because I’ve lost him,” Ash replied.
“Who?”
“Baron Sweetcheeks has escaped!” Ash cried. She let out a huge breath, as if just telling someone had lifted a weight off her shoulders.
Morgan gasped at the news.
“I’m so sorry,” said Ash. “I know how much Baron Sweetcheeks means to you. I’m going to find him. I’m sure of it.”
“Let me help,” said Morgan.
Ash looked at him with suspicion. “Really?” she said at last.
“Of course,” said Morgan. “Four eyes are better than two.”
Ash opened the door fully. “But I thought you hated me.”
Morgan gasped again. Hate was such an ugly word. He had never hated anyone, ever.
“Why would you think that?” he asked.
Into the Game! (Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles #1) Page 4