Mobs in the Mine

by Winter Morgan

  “Where?” Michael asked.

  “We’re going to have to travel to a mine. I know there is an abandoned mineshaft in the nearest jungle biome,” replied Warren.

  Lily suggested, “Michael, Warren, Simon, and I should go on the trip to the mine. We will distribute all of the resources we collect among the townspeople of Lisimi Village.”

  The townspeople protested. They didn’t want to stay behind. A man in a black sweater said, “If we stay here, we might be attacked by Mr. Anarchy, and we don’t have any resources to battle him.”

  A woman with a blue hat said, “We will be too vulnerable if we stay here.”

  Warren rolled out a different plan. “We should break up into different groups. I have a map that highlights various mines. We will all go on mining trips and meet back to share our resources.”

  “And remember, we all have to come up with ideas for getting home,” Lily added. “We’ll still meet when we all return from mining and hunting.”

  “These trips should inspire us to think of ideas for escaping from this server.”

  Everyone agreed that this was the best plan. They needed supplies and they also needed to come up with a plan of escape. The townspeople were put in groups, and each set out to a different mine.

  Lily and her friends prepared for their trip to the mine. It was getting dark, and they didn’t want to arrive at night, when they’d be exposed to hostile mob attacks.

  “We should start on our journey,” Simon said, looking up at the sky.

  “Yes,” Warren agreed as he watched the townspeople embark on their mining expeditions.

  As the group walked through the village streets, Juan the Butcher raced toward them. “Warren! Lily! Wait!”

  “What’s the matter?” asked Lily.

  Juan was distraught. His voice shook as he said, “Mr. Anarchy has struck again.”

  4

  TRIP TO THE MINE

  “Oh no, what happened here?” Lily exclaimed. She, Warren, and Juan were standing in front of Fred the Farmer’s fields. Where once Fred had grown rows and rows of wheat crops, now there was only a blackened hole.

  “Someone destroyed most of Fred’s wheat with TNT,” Juan explained. He sounded distraught.

  “This is awful,” Lily said. “And I’m sure it’s the work of Mr. Anarchy.”

  “We should be here to tell him when he gets back from helping Emily the Fisherwoman,” Juan said. “Mr. Anarchy has been stealing Emily’s fish—and now this. Fred will be so upset.”

  Lily was torn. She wanted to comfort her friend and neighbor, Fred, but she also knew the trip to the mine was vital for their survival. But before she could decide what to do, she heard a voice in the distance. “Warren!”

  Fred the Farmer was approaching, and the friends raced to meet their friend before he saw his ruined crops.

  “I’m sorry, Fred,” said Juan, “but I think you should take a look at your wheat fields.”

  Fred ran to his farm and cried out when he saw the damage.

  “Mr. Anarchy has to be stopped. He can’t keep terrorizing us,” Lily declared as she followed Fred to comfort him.

  “I agree—we can’t keep living under threat of attack. But first we have to find some supplies to replenish our inventories,” said Michael.

  The sky was turning dark. Warren suggested they start on the journey in the morning. The others thought that was a good idea. They walked to their homes.

  Lily was happy to have one more night at her small cottage with her pet, Wolfie. She loved the comfort of her home. She said goodbye to her friends and walked toward her small, cozy cottage. As she entered the door, she felt an arrow hit her arm.

  “Ouch!” she cried out. Lily realized that she wasn’t wearing her armor, leaving her extremely vulnerable to an attack. She tried to retrieve her armor from her inventory, but she didn’t have any time. A spider jockey was lunging toward her. The skeleton riding a spider shot a barrage of arrows at an unarmored Lily.

  Lily was losing hearts. She cried for help, but her friends couldn’t hear her. Lily fumbled for her sword and struck the red-eyed spider with her last bit of strength. The blow weakened the spider, but didn’t destroy it.

  “Help!” Lily cried out again as another arrow struck her stomach.

  Lily had two hearts left when she struck the skeleton with her diamond sword, and was shocked when she destroyed the bony beast. The skeleton dropped a bone, but Lily couldn’t pick it up. She was too busy battling the spider. With one last strike, she slayed the spider with her diamond sword. Lily let out a sigh. With the powerful mob defeated, she could take a sip of milk and replenish her hearts.

  Lily didn’t want to battle any other hostile mobs, so she sprinted into her small cottage. She raced to her bed and jumped beneath the covers. Lily knew that even if she was destroyed, she’d respawn in her own bed, and that made her extremely happy.

  In the morning, Michael showed up at Lily’s house. “Are you ready for our mining expedition?”

  Lily told Michael about the attack from the spider jockey.

  “I’m impressed! That’s a tough mob. Especially when you’re not wearing armor,” Michael commended his friend.

  They walked outside and met their friends. Warren studied a map. “We don’t have to travel very far to reach this mine.”

  “I hope we find some valuable minerals,” Lily said as they walked toward the jungle biome.

  “I hope we don’t encounter Mr. Anarchy,” remarked Simon.

  The gang walked along the shoreline. They spotted Emily the Fisherwoman, fishing for her morning catch.

  “Hi!” Emily said with a smile.

  The group walked over to Emily. “Are you catching a lot?” asked Warren.

  “Yes.” Emily showed him her pile of fish. “You should take some for your trip. You want to have food to eat. You might be gone a long time. Mining takes a lot of patience.”

  They thanked her for the fish and continued on their journey to the abandoned mine in the jungle biome. But when they reached the jungle, Warren suddenly looked distraught.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Lily.

  Warren clutched the map, “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “What?” questioned Simon.

  “The abandoned mine was supposed to be here.” Warren pointed to a path that was lined with trees. “But I don’t see it.”

  The group explored the area in the jungle, and didn’t see the abandoned mineshaft.

  “How could that be?” Lily was dumbfounded.

  “Do you think we’re in the wrong jungle biome?” suggested Michael.

  “No.” Warren looked at the map again. “I’ve been here before. I know there is a mine here.”

  “But it’s missing.” Simon carefully inspected the ground and the trees. “There are just a bunch of trees.”

  “I don’t like blaming everything on Mr. Anarchy, but I bet he has something to do with the disappearance of the mine.” Lily was angry. She wanted to mine and replenish their supplies.

  Simon, who had wandered away from the group, still inspecting the area, called out to his friends, “I think I see a hole over here!”

  Lily and the others dashed toward Simon. Right on the edge of the jungle biome, there was a hole in the side of a small mountain. Someone had carefully arranged branches and leaves in front of the entrance to the mine to hide it.

  “See?” Simon smiled as they all took the scene in. “Someone wanted to make sure it wasn’t easy for us to find this place.”

  “We have to go in!” Michael sprinted inside.

  “Wait, it could be a trap!” warned Lily.

  The others didn’t pay any attention to Lily; they all pulled out their pickaxes and rushed into the abandoned mineshaft.

  Kaboom!

  5

  COMMAND BLOCKS AND CONTESTS

  “Are you okay?” Lily called out.

  “We’re fine!” came Simon’s muffled reply.

  “It was ju
st a creeper,” added Michael. “I think it destroyed someone who was in the mine.”

  “Who was that?” asked Lily.

  “We don’t know,” replied Simon.

  Lily reluctantly walked into the darkened mine. She had a feeling that Mr. Anarchy was going to trap them in the abandoned mineshaft. She was also suspicious of the person who was just destroyed by a silent, explosive attack from a creeper. Lily gripped the pickaxe as if it were a diamond sword. She was ready to attack anyone who entered the mine and startled her.

  Michael walked in front of her while the friends talked, testing the blocks around him with his pickaxe. Finally, he threw up his hands. “This mine seems to be empty!” Michael was annoyed that he still hadn’t discovered any minerals.

  “You have to give it time. We just have to dig deeper,” Simon reassured his friend.

  Lily climbed into a hole and banged her pickaxe, hoping to unearth diamonds and other precious minerals.

  “Watch out!” Simon warned them. A cave spider crawled by them. Michael hit and destroyed the insect with his diamond sword.

  Lily looked up and didn’t have enough time to warn Michael that a creeper was behind him.

  “Michael!” Simon shouted. But it was too late.

  Kaboom!

  Michael was destroyed.

  Warren shouted, “Look up!”

  “That can’t be!” Lily cried out.

  Two ghasts flew toward them. Simon made a fist and slammed his hand into the fireball the ghast shot at them. The fireball hit the ghast, and it exploded.

  Lily used her fist to destroy the second ghast.

  “I knew Mr. Anarchy was plotting something,” Lily called out, looking around for other mobs. She was discouraged, but she was happy when Simon yelled.

  “Diamonds!” Simon exclaimed. “I found diamonds.”

  They gang gathered the blue diamonds and filled their inventories with the precious stones.

  “Lily! Simon! Warren!” Michael called to his friends.

  “We’re in the mine. We found diamonds!” Lily was losing count of the precious gems as she collected them.

  “Lisimi Village is in trouble.” Michael frowned. “I TPed back here to warn you guys. There were zombie pigmen walking through the town in the middle of the day. Someone is spawning Nether mobs in the Overworld.”

  “We know! We just fought a ghast,” explained Simon.

  “Oh no!” Lily looked up and spotted four blazes fly through the dimly-lit mine. The fiery, flying beasts shot fireballs at the group.

  “Does anybody have a snowball?” asked Lily as she grabbed her sword. She was out of arrows.

  “No, I have nothing,” Michael replied. Everyone else checked their inventories, but they were all close to empty.

  Lily attempted to shield herself from the blazes’ powerful blasts, but she was struck by a fireball and destroyed.

  Moments later, Lily respawned in her bed in the cottage. She hurried outside to see if her friends had also been destroyed.

  “Simon!” Lily called to her neighbor.

  Simon ran out of his house. “Lily, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Lily said. “You, too?”

  “Yes. Are the diamonds still in your inventory, or did you lose them when you were in the mine?” Simon asked.

  Lily was relieved when she found her diamonds safely in her inventory. “They’re here.”

  “This is a crazy invasion of Nether mobs,” Simon said as two zombie pigmen walked by them.

  “Why is Mr. Anarchy doing this to us?” Lily was very upset.

  Michael and Warren emerged from their houses. They had also been destroyed in the mine by the Nether mobs.

  “We’re going to have to go to the Nether to fight these mobs. We have to brew potions of fire resistance,” said Warren.

  “We should also travel to the cold biome to gather snowballs,” suggested Lily. “If we have a large supply of those, we’ll be able to defeat the Nether mobs.”

  Michael pointed out, “We have to defeat Mr. Anarchy. Once we do that, the Nether mobs will disappear.”

  “But we also have to survive,” Lily replied. “And the mobs won’t just go away on their own, even if we can stop Mr. Anarchy from spawning more.”

  Townspeople returned from their mining trips and walked up to the group.

  Everyone in the town told stories about encountering Nether mobs in the Overworld.

  “We saw blazes, ghasts and magma cubes,” an exhausted townsperson informed them.

  Warren said, “We know there are Nether mobs spawning in the Overworld. We have to battle them. We think Mr. Anarchy is the one summoning these Nether mobs.”

  Lily added, “We have to destroy Mr. Anarchy.”

  A townsperson called out, “No, we don’t. We just have to make our way home. Are we finally having that meeting where we each present our ideas for getting back to the real world?”

  Warren agreed and announced, “Town meeting. Who has an idea they’d like to share?”

  Lily asked if she could be the first person to present.

  “Okay,” Warren said, and he introduced Lily to the crowd.

  Lily disliked speaking in front of lots of people. Her heart raced as she explained her plan to the townsfolk.

  “As far as we can tell, the only people who have been sent home have been struck by a lightning bolt. So if we can create lightning and make sure it strikes each of us, we should be able to get home. We could use command blocks to create lightning—although we’ll need to be able to replicate the lightning bolt many times, because we have to create one for each player in order to get all of us back home,” Lily said.

  Everyone was enthusiastic about Lily’s plan. There was just one problem.

  “The only problem is that I’m out of command blocks,” Lily said.

  The crowd erupted in cries of dismay.

  “Does anyone have command blocks?” Lily called over the crowd’s noise.

  A murmuring went through the crowd as townspeople checked their inventories for command blocks and talked among themselves.

  But when the gathering fell silent, Lily was devastated. No one had any of the rare blocks.

  Slowly, the townsperson in the blue hat raised her hand. “I was just in the jungle biome, where Mr. Anarchy has his temple. I noticed he had a redstone comparator that could only be powered by a command block. He must have a store of them somewhere.”

  Warren beckoned the woman up onto the stage. “What’s your name?” he asked. “And can you tell us more?”

  “I’m Harriet,” the woman in the blue hat told them. “I also spotted a person in a green jumpsuit by Mr. Anarchy’s jungle temple.”

  “Great observations,” Warren commended Harriet. “Thanks for letting us know about this.” Warren then asked if anyone else had a plan for getting back to the real world.

  There wasn’t time for a reply. The sky grew dark and rain fell on the crowd. In moments, the town was overrun with zombies and skeletons.

  Arrows shot through the air. The town fought hard to destroy these hostile mobs. Yet despite having an inventory overflowing with diamonds, Lily didn’t have any arrows. She fought skeletons and zombies with her diamond sword instead.

  A lightning bolt flashed through the rainy skies.

  “Harriet!” Warren called out as the bolt of lightning struck Harriet. But it was too late—she had already disappeared.

  Four blazes flew through the sky, and Warren and the others couldn’t focus on Harriet’s disappearance. They were too busy trying to survive the storm.

  Fireballs rained down on them along with the rain. Lily sprinted away from a fireball, but it struck Michael and he was destroyed. Lily turned around to see that Michael was gone. She held her sword and slammed it into a skeleton, destroying it. She paused to wipe the rain from her face.

  A few townspeople had snowballs in their inventories, and they aimed at the flying Nether mobs, destroying them.

  The rain
stopped, and Michael dashed out of his house and into the center of the village.

  Juan the Butcher stood in front of the blacksmith’s shop. He advised everyone, “Trade your diamonds and other resources for swords and armor. We have a serious battle ahead of us.”

  Warren ran over to Lily. “Can you believe Harriet was transported back to the real world?”

  “She was going to lead us to Mr. Anarchy’s command blocks.” Lily was upset. She wanted to get command blocks from Mr. Anarchy and summon a storm with endless lightning bolts so the entire population of Lisimi Village could return to the real world. “Now what will we do?”

  6

  BATTLE IN THE JUNGLE

  “We have to search Mr. Anarchy’s jungle temple for his command blocks right away,” demanded Michael.

  “I want to start looking now, too,” said Warren, “but we need to have a plan.”

  As they spoke, six magma cubes bounced toward them. Lily sprinted toward the magma cubes, cutting one of the cubes in half. The smaller cubes jumped at Lily. She tried to slay them with her diamond sword, but the cubes surrounded her, and Lily lost a heart.

  “Help!” she cried out.

  Michael destroyed two small cubes with his diamond sword. The others joined and defeated the bouncy cubes from the Nether.

  “We have to see Mr. Anarchy now. I want this Nether invasion to stop.” Lily was exhausted from battle.

  The group ran through the grassy biome toward the jungle, but halfway there, Lily let out a muffled cry and disappeared.

  “Lily?” Michael turned around and didn’t see his friend.

  “I’m down here,” Lily called out. She had fallen into a hole in the ground and landed in a minecart. “Where do you think this goes?”

  “Only one way to find out,” Warren said with a shrug. He looked at the others, and they all nodded.

  The gang hopped into minecarts and traveled straight underground for a long while. When they came to a stop and climbed out of the carts, they were in another hole right under the entrance to Mr. Anarchy’s jungle temple.

  But as they emerged from the mineshaft, arrows flew at them.

  “Shield yourself,” Lily called out.