Minecraft: 50 Unofficial Minecraft Books in 1 (Minecraft Diary Deal, Minecraft Book, Minecraft Storybook, Minecraft Books, Minecraft Diaries, Minecraft Diary, Minecraft Book for Kids)

by Billy Miner

  I needed something useful… something powerful… something… something… that would help mankind.

  One of the books caught my eye. It was called “Forbidden formulas for Freedom.” If anything, the alliteration in this guide was exaggerated, but I was incredibly interested in the term “forbidden.” What could be so powerful that it would be forbidden?

  The book only had three formulas and when I saw them, I knew I was destined to experiment on all three.

  Chemistry

  The mysterious book was big and dusty, as if it hadn’t been used for centuries. I found it in the back of the shelves, hidden behind other books. After I flipped through the pages, I decided to take it to the classroom, where I could test the complicated calculations and rare substances the potions described in there consisted of.

  It was heavy too.

  “Ughhh…”

  I had a hard time carrying it.

  “Hey Matthew, can you come help me for a minute?” I asked.

  “Sure, Gabe. What’s happening?”

  “Just carrying this book to the classroom.”

  We both carried it into the classroom and I started collecting some formulas. After putting some substances together though, I came across a message I had skipped at first. It read,

  Whoever uses these formulas, will have more responsibility. A strict warning goes to all who succeed to apply these chemicals: Use them selfishly and you your conscience will die. It is not right for any person with self-interest to abuse these powers.

  What was that all about?

  I was about to find out.

  Potion 1: Invisibility

  I wasn’t able to complete the potions in the classroom, but the teacher let me take some of the fluids and additives home to continue experimenting with them. I walked home with the thick book in my backpack, feeling sore afterwards because of its weight.

  At home, I greeted my parents and sibling and played with them for a while.

  “Mom, can I use the basement to continue trying out the formulas in the book from the library?” I asked.

  “Of course,” the answer was.

  I took the book downstairs and put some beakers and glasses on the table, as well as tubes, jars, and some stuff to boil the fluids with.

  First I mixed the chloride with the anti-oxidants and the hydroxide with the lubricated oils. A whole series of mixing and matching followed. It took me a whole hour to get to the point that I thought I was almost there. Then suddenly…

  BOOOOOM!!!!

  “What happened, Gabe? Are you all right?” my mother shouted down the stairs.

  “I’m okay, mom! Don’t worry!”

  I wasn’t really okay, because my ego got hurt. How on earth did I get it wrong?

  Aha!

  Then I saw it. Really? It only needed a sprinkle of salt and sugar? How was that going to help? Oh well, better stick to the formula in the book.

  I took a spoon, added a little sugar, went upstairs, borrowed the salt and sprinkled it into the beaker.

  Green steam came from the beaker. It was a little scary. I wasn’t sure anymore if I wanted to drink it. It smelled disgusting, and the green smoke made me worried. However, I took a leap of faith and grabbed the beaker.

  “It’s now or never,” I told myself.

  With that, I lifted up the beaker and drank the entire potion.

  At first, I felt nothing.

  But then I experienced a tingly feeling in my muscles. I looked at my hands and feet.

  Whoa! I was disappearing! It worked! My body was becoming invisible! For some reason, my clothes integrated into the process too. They all vanished into thin air… well… not really vanished… they just looked like they were gone. This was awesome!

  With my newfound appearance (or should I say disappearance?) I ran upstairs and noticed none of my siblings saw me coming. I ran outside in excitement, even though it was already dark. I didn’t care. Nobody saw me anyway, right? I didn’t know when the invisibility was going to be over, but I loved the way it was now.

  I roamed the streets for a few minutes, feeling free and away from society. I tried to imagine all the wonderful things I could do with this, but not much came to mind. Then something happened that changed my perspective: I saw a thief.

  A burglar leapt from a nearby window, carrying a big bag with stolen items in it. He looked around, ran away, and disappeared behind the street corner into an alley.

  The moment of courage was here. I knew what I was to do. After three seconds of pondering my options, I ran into the alley and found the thief counting his money and admiring the objects he had stolen.

  Without hesitation, I walked over to him, punched him in the face, and kicked his shins.

  He never saw me coming. I was still invisible. He dropped the bag in fear, not being able to fathom what was happening to him.

  “Where are you? Show yourself!” he yelled with a frightened voice.

  Bang!

  Another blow in his face. I was going to kick and hit him as long as I had to in order to retrieve the stolen goods.

  It didn’t take long though.

  “Get away from me!” he cried as he sped away, leaving the bag behind.

  I carefully picked up the breakable treasures and stuffed them back into the bag, collecting whatever was lying on the floor. I walked back to the house and leaned through the window, placing the bag inside. I was certain the owners would find it.

  After this heroic deed, even if I do say so myself, I ran home and was about to tell my mom about what occurred. I opened the door and noticed all my siblings had gone to bed… all except one… my oldest sister was walking around in her pajamas. I saw her, but she didn’t seem to see me. She was completely unaware of my presence. I really was invisible, even to her!

  “Hold on a second,” I told myself.

  I suddenly understood the danger of giving this potion to anyone else. What if my sister was in her underwear? Or worse?! Anyone with the power of this substance would be able to walk in on her and become a dirty, peeping tom without her consent, invading her privacy. Nobody was going to do that to MY sister!

  Then it hit me: People who are invisible could easily steal stuff without being noticed, rob banks, win every fight, and even spy in places where the opposite gender is indecent or inappropriately dressed. It would be terrible if this power would be distributed to the general public! Imagine all the confidentiality that would be lost, the crimes that would be committed! Just because I was decent enough to use it for a good cause didn’t mean everyone else would.

  No. I couldn’t let that happen. I was going to change the formula in this book so nobody would ever find out about the invisibility potion. And so I did. On to the next potion.

  Potion 2: Transformation

  The next day, I tried to create the second potion. The promise in this dusty, old book was that you could change into different people by drinking this next potion. Wouldn’t that be awesome? You could turn into a muscled dude and nobody would know it’s you. You could even turn into a girl, an old woman, a celebrity, or the mayor of the city!

  I got really excited for this potion. Imagine the possibilities! I went to work and put all kinds of weird chemical substances in a beaker. I mixed them up, added little flakes, edible plants from my mom’s kitchen, and other ingredients, some of which I had taken home from school. After assorting various fluids and natural products, I looked at the results and took a chance to drink it.

  I burped and looked at myself.

  Nothing had changed.

  Weird.

  I went upstairs, still hoping the potion had worked. When I entered our living room, I saw my brothers and sisters.

  “Hi, Gabe. Where are you going?”

  “Just outside. See ya!”

  I left the house and immediately, I turned into my little brother, with all his clothes and everything.

  Wow!

  This was great! I worked! I could turn into anyone!

&n
bsp; At first, I just had some fun with it. I walked through the streets, turning into every other person that walked by. I went from an old man to a hyperactive little girl to a business man in a sophisticated outfit. I changed into a guy with a tattoo, a complaining woman in her thirties, and into a tough looking teenager. It was a lot of fun. I made sure nobody saw the sudden changes and I remained unnoticed.

  I turned the corner of the street and saw a house with a big family. The mother was yelling at her son, telling him to clean up his room for once. The boy yelled back in anger, saying that he never wanted to see her again.

  The mom was shocked.

  The boy ran away.

  The mother stared at him, disappearing in the distance.

  Tears emerged in her eyes.

  She went back inside.

  As I stood by, observing this scenario, I felt for both of them. If only I could do something to make the boy come back. The mother had too many tasks and already lost sight of her son anyway. There was no way she would go after him at this moment. But I was sad. I wanted to fix it. So I ran after the little boy and found him moping in the corner of a dumpster, hiding in the shadows.

  I had an idea.

  I turned into his mom and walked over. I squatted down, making sure my eyes were at the same height as his. He looked up.

  “What do you want, mom? I am angry at you. Go away,” he mumbled.

  “I am sorry about being so harsh on you, son,” I said with the voice of his mother. “I just want to keep the house clean so we can all enjoy it better. I am not angry at you. I love you. Please come back and we’ll make it fun by cleaning up together.”

  The boy looked up.

  “Do you mean that?” he said with a glimmer in his eyes and a hint of a smile.

  “Of course! Just come back, so we can clean up and we’ll cook something yummy for you to eat as well. I will be waiting at home. Come whenever you’re ready.”

  I quickly took off after those words and changed into myself again. From an angle, I watched as the boy got up and ran home. As soon as he stepped into the doorway, his mom was there to greet him.

  “I’m sorry, mom,” he said, giving her a hug.

  The mother was surprised to see how quickly this often bitter young boy got over it so suddenly, but she accepted his apology gladly.

  My day was pretty enjoyable. I changed into a hundred different people. It all seemed harmless.

  But then, on the streets, I saw some authorities hold a man, dragging him out of his house and cuffing him.

  “This is a mistake!” the man yelled. “I am telling you that I got framed! It wasn’t me!”

  “Yeah, yeah… tell that to the judge,” one of the officials said as he put the handcuffs on his wrists.

  I couldn’t think of anything to do about this incident at the moment, but again, it hit me that this power could be changed for good and bad. Imagine how much damage you could do my pretending to be someone else, hiding behind your powered mask and letting others think someone was doing something he or she wasn’t!

  You could frame people, let others take the blame when you did something wrong, deceive friends, neighbors and strangers… you could commit crimes and get away with it because people would never see your real face, just the person you turned into.

  This was wrong. Nobody should have this power. It was unethical. This potion wasn’t safe either. Hopefully the last one wouldn’t let me down.

  Potion 3: Teleportation

  The formula for teleportation was a complicated one, and I had to go to the grocery store to get some extra items I hadn’t thought of in the first place. After another chemical process and a big mess in the basement (don’t worry, mom… I’ll clean it up afterwards), I mixed everything together and gave it another shot. I drank the potion and felt a sudden jolt in my body.

  “That was weird,” I thought.

  I concentrated. Wouldn’t this superpower work just by thinking of a certain location and then transporting yourself through the air to get there? At first, nothing happened. I focused harder.

  “Think,” I told myself. “Where do I want to go?”

  I wasn’t sure.

  Now what?

  Aha! I had it! I had always seen pictures of a beautiful city in the Far East, Chingtong Town. They had good food there, and all kinds of ingenious thingies they didn’t have here. I thought of it.

  “Chingtong Town.”

  “Chingtong Town.”

  Poooof!

  I stood in Chingtong Town.

  Wow!

  This was awesome! I could teleport within a second to wherever I wanted! The only thing I had to do, was think about it hard enough and I would appear at that location. I turned around and somebody wasn’t looking. He didn’t see me and almost bumped into me, watching something the other way.

  Pooooof!

  I teleported behind him. I guessed it worked at a small distance too. Content with my newfound power, I ventured through the city, looking for entertainment. I tried samples of little food shops on the street corners and viewed the humongous buildings in awe, with their spiky, cultural shapes and lights.

  I was having the time of my life!

  A little later, I was in the park and saw a group of people in a circle. Obviously, something was going on over there. I went to see what the commotion was all about. Then I saw it. There was a fight going on.

  “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” the boys were yelling.

  A big bully with squinted eyes was beating up a skimpy kid who was lying down on the ground, covering his head and begging for mercy. How could anyone stand by and watch this?

  “What did he do?” I asked one of the cheering boys.

  “Oh him,” he said laughingly. “He is just a wimpy kid. We always beat him up because he thinks he is so smart. Today he wouldn’t hand over his lunch money, so this is what he gets. It’s okay. It happens every day.”

  I was disgusted by their attitude. It wasn’t fair. I hesitated for a few seconds, but then I took courage and stepped into the circle.

  “Stop!” I said.

  The big bully turned around.

  “What did you say?”

  “You heard me,” I said. “Stop beating up an innocent kid. You’re twice his size. What did he ever do to you?”

  “Well, well,” the bully said. “What do we have here? A little hero, huh? It seems you rather take his place.”

  He shoved me backwards, pushing my chest.

  “I am warning you,” I said.

  “Ha-ha! Keep warning me, wimp,” he said as he pushed me again.

  “Suit yourself,” I said, and I teleported behind him.

  “Huh?”

  I pushed his back, making him fall forward and almost losing his balance.

  Everyone was shocked. They saw me teleport. They didn’t understand it. They all got afraid and ran away, but not the bully.

  “Come here, you!” he said while he stormed at me.

  Poooof!

  I appeared behind him and gently kicked the back of his legs, making him trip and fall flat on his face. He panted, spat out some dirt, turned around and got up.

  “Aaaah! I will beat you up!” he yelled ragingly, coming at me again.

  Poooof!

  Again I disappeared and stood behind him, pushing him and causing him to fall. Finally it sank in. He couldn’t beat me and he realized it.

  “Wha-what are you?” he asked shakingly.

  “I am the ghost that will haunt you if you ever touch this poor boy again,” I said. “I will appear in your nightmares, in your room… anywhere you go I will find you, unless…”

  “What? I’ll do anything! Just leave me alone!” the bully said in fear.

  “… Unless you stay out of his way. Then I won’t bother you anymore.”

  “Oh, okay. Anything you say. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again,” he said.

  I helped the wimpy kid up and moved on. I thought about what just happened. It wasn’t a fair figh
t to begin with, but wasn’t fair either that I could teleport actually. The bully got what he deserved, but if someone with bad intentions possessed this power, a lot of harm could be done.

  With this power, you could win every fight, you could steal things and disappear with them, you could get away with murder, you could barge into people’s homes and personal properties without their knowledge… this was wrong…

  When I came home, I was little disappointed, to say the least. I discovered another potion, another superpower, and to no effect. All three had so much potential yet were so dangerous if they would fall into the wrong hands. What was I to do? I wanted to pass the test, to become the new, most respected inventor and change the world, but at what cost? Was I really going to hand over these dangerous possibilities to the general public?

  The Exam

  It was early in the morning. Every kid in class showed up, because this was the big day. Mr. Snicklewickle was there and he was curious to see which project would stand out the most.

  “Hi Matthew,” I said. “Did you invent a flying potion?”

  “No,” he said. “But it’s okay. It was too hard anyway. I invented something else though. Just watch.”

  The next hour or so, school officials, prominent city bureaucrats, the board of teachers were there to evaluate our experiments. Each child presented his or her newest inventions. I was impressed by potions that could make you flip book pages by just thinking about it, turning stones into frogs, and hocus pocus stuff like that.

  Matthew was up. It was his turn. He came forward and proudly presented a potion that gave you the power to touch water and make it change color. Everybody clapped. It was a fun way to make the boring water more interesting, or so Mr. Snicklewickle claimed.

  Then it was my turn. I walked forward and anxiously looked both ways at the eyes staring at me, anticipating my project.