Quest for Justice (6 page)

The upper mine was illuminated by torchlight, but Stan still couldn't make out the sides. It was enormous. As they went farther down, there were fewer torches, but Stan could now see dozens of players hacking away at the sides with pickaxes. Stan guessed that this was where all the good materials were.

The mine carts took them past several stops at different levels, and all the way down to the bottom of the mine. Down there, Stan saw a room constructed out of cobblestone, with
torchlight inside. The four new players and G walked into the room, and G explained Mining 101 to them. He showed them how to distinguish the seven different types of ore: coal, iron, redstone, gold, lapis lazuli, emerald, and diamond. Then he showed them which materials the pickaxes were good for mining and offered some basic mining safety tips: don't dig straight down, watch out around gravel and sand, and so on.

Once they were done, G took them out of the cobblestone-block room, gave out stone pickaxes, and taught them how to fight with them. Once again the training suits were put on, and there was another tournament. To everyone's surprise, the one who excelled fastest at pickaxe fighting was Charlie. They had to get three hits in on their opponent, and Charlie beat Stan in the first round and then Kat in the second round. Needless to say, Kat obliterated the other boy. The best moment was during Charlie's fight against Kat. He was up by two points when Kat took a lunge at him. He fell back and threw his pickaxe through the air, knocking off her helmet.

They then started to mine. Stan did all right. Gravel only fell onto him once, and he got out of it pretty quickly. He also found some coal and iron ore, and even two blocks of lapis lazuli ore, which G said was a rare block used to make blue dye. Kat did about as well as him, not having any gravel fall on her, but not finding any lapis lazuli either. Charlie, however, excelled once again. He seemed to have a sixth sense that
told him which way to dig to find the best materials. He brought up much more iron than either of the others, and he also found five lapis lazuli ore blocks and even some gold ore, which G said was very rare. It was a shame, said G, that all materials found during the program went to the stores of the village.

“But don't worry, I'm sure that you'll find really good stuff mining on your own, Charlie,” said G with a smile. “You have the best mining instincts of anyone I've ever taught.”

The three went home feeling content that they had done better at mining than they had at archery, with Charlie absolutely beaming at his newfound prowess.

They had a dinner of watermelon and some more bread, and they were going to bed when Sally spoke to Stan yet again.

“Tomorrow you guys are with me,” she said to him. “I'm teaching you sword fighting and crafting.”

“Is that so?” said Stan. “Well, I look forward to it.”

“Just know,” said Sally, “I have high expectations for you.”

Stan's stomach flipped. “In what? Sword fighting or crafting?” he asked. Immediately afterward, he felt like an idiot.

She looked him in the eyes and smiled. “Both,” she said, and she went off to bed.

The following day, after bowls of mushroom stew for breakfast, they headed into the dojo above the crafting building to train in sword fighting and crafting.

Stan was nervous. Before the archery and mining lessons he had felt excited, yes, but not nervous. He remembered the exchange with Sally last night. She had high expectations for him. He couldn't let himself mess this up.

Stan, Kat, and Charlie sat down across from Sally. The other boy had been moved to the class with his other friends after a not-so-subtle request by G and Archie. Stan listened intently as Sally explained that the most important aspect of sword fighting in Minecraft was to not think too much and to basically just do what felt natural.

After she explained and demonstrated some different techniques, she pulled three training suits out of her inventory. “Stan, Charlie, Kat, please come up here.”

They did as she said, not knowing what would happen next. G and Archie had called them up two at a time to fight, not three.

“Put these on,” she commanded, holding out three sets of diamond body armor. They obliged. As Stan was pulling on the diamond pants, he saw Sally pull two stone swords and one iron sword out of her inventory.

“Kat, Charlie, come stand over here,” she said. They walked to where she was standing. She threw Charlie and Kat
the stone swords. “Stan, just stand there.” She threw him the iron sword.

“Kat, Charlie, when I say go, you are going to attack Stan with everything you've got. Stan, you have to defend against both of them. As usual, you are out after three hits.”

Stan was dismayed. He had never really fought another player with a sword in his life. He knew that Charlie wasn't any better than he was, but Kat had supposedly done all that stuff on the other servers. She had killed a player and taken his sword and pickaxes! How was he going to beat her?

“Sally, can't I get some advantage or something? Like I have four hits and they have two? Wouldn't that be fair?”

Sally snickered. “Stan, imagine if a group of about twenty players armed with loaded bows and diamond swords jumped out of the woods and ambushed you. Would that be fair? No, but you'd
still
have to fight, right? You would, 'cause you know what? Sometimes life isn't fair. And I was nice. You
have
an advantage. You have an iron sword and they both have stone, so don't be a wimp, noob! Now take your positions!”

Up until this point, Kat had been smirking and Charlie had been looking confused, but now they both dropped into fighting stances, swords raised. Kat wore an expression of aggression, while Charlie wore one of apprehension about attacking his friend. Stan was petrified, but he could see
Sally's mind wasn't changing, so he readied himself to fight.

Sally sat down in a wooden chair with her legs crossed. “Okay then . . . FIGHT!”

Stan was caught totally off guard, but both Charlie and Kat rushed him at the same time. Charlie gave an uppercut to Stan's right arm, and Stan dodged him by sidestepping left. However, he forgot about Kat, who brought her stone sword down onto his helmet with an almighty clang that reverberated in his skull.

Sally yelled out, “Point to Kat and Charlie! Stan, you've got two hits left . . . Charlie, three . . . Kat, three. Back to positions.” They walked back to their original positions and dropped into fighting stances once again. “Ready? And . . . FIGHT!”

This time Stan was ready. Charlie rushed first and tried the same uppercut attack, and again Stan dodged, but when Kat swung her sword to his left side he spun his iron sword and blocked Kat's attack. The two players pressed into each other's weapons. Kat was stronger than Stan, but Stan had better leverage. Stan was about to overpower her when he felt a dull pain at his right rib cage. Charlie had spun back around and hit him hard on the right side of his body armor. It had hurt, too.

Again, Sally called out, “Point to Kat and Charlie! Stan, one hit left . . . Charlie, three . . . Kat, three.” But instead of
calling out “ready,” she walked over to Stan. She stood behind him, put her hands on his shoulders, and whispered in his ear. “Stan, you aren't going to win if you put all your energy into fighting one of them. When one of them strikes you, dodge it, and use the opening to come back in and deliver a strike. And better yet, use their own energy against them if you can. Also, remember, go for the weakest link first.” With that, she went back to her chair. Stan felt weak-kneed as she was so close to him, but immediately got back into his fighting stance, knowing what he would do next.

Sally announced, “Match point! Ready? And . . . FIGHT!”

Stan moved instantly. He cut hard to the right, toward Charlie's side. Kat couldn't attack him, because Charlie was in between them. Charlie took a slash with his sword at Stan, but Stan feinted backward, and at the first opportunity he rushed forward and thrust his sword with all his might at Charlie's stomach. The direct blow glanced off his training suit, but Charlie still doubled over, the wind knocked out of him.

“Point to Stan! Stan, one hit left . . . Charlie, two . . . Kat, three.” As they reset, Stan caught Sally's eye. She smiled, and instantly another plan, more brilliant than the last, popped into his head.

“Match point! Ready? And . . . FIGHT!”

Stan stood still, and Charlie rushed toward Stan. Knowing what they were trying to do, Stan feinted right and slammed
his sword into Charlie's back, forcing Charlie to the spot where Stan had just stood. Just as Stan had expected, Kat jumped up. Not aware of Charlie's new position, Kat brought her sword down where Stan had just been standing, but instead of hitting him on the head, she clubbed her partner. His helmet flew off, and Charlie hit the floor like a ton of bricks.

Sally yelled, “Point to Stan! Stan, one hit left . . . Charlie, zero . . . Kat, three! Charlie is out!” But Kat and Stan didn't notice as they were both checking to see if Charlie was okay, and even as she said it, Sally was standing up to join them.

“Charlie, are you all right?” cried Stan, his voice hoarse with worry.

“Oh God, Charlie, I am so sorry!” yelled Kat, tears in her eyes.

“Charlie? Charlie, can you hear me?” said Sally, bending over Charlie's unconscious form. Stan noticed the slash on his head, and his stomach felt like it had dissolved. Charlie couldn't be . . . no, he refused to let himself think it. Sally waved her blocky hand over his closed eyes. When there was no response, she reached into her inventory and pulled something out. It was a golden apple, like the one that Stan had seen Jayden give to his unconscious brother. The second Charlie swallowed the shiny fruit, the wound on his head disappeared, and he sat upright, holding his head.

“Well, that was unpleasant,” he said with a dark smile.

Kat gave a shout of relief while Stan yelled out, “Thank God you're alive, man!” He turned to Sally. “What happened? I thought you said that the armor absorbed all damage!”

“It's supposed to,” Sally said, frowning. “Let me see Charlie's helmet, Stan.” Stan picked up the helmet from the floor and handed it to her. She examined it. “Well, it looks like somebody didn't enchant this helmet correctly. It appears to have been given Blast Protection instead of just normal Protection, so you wouldn't get hurt by an explosion—but you would by a sword. How did we not catch this in review?

“Well, I guess it doesn't matter, we can fix it,” she said. “And, may I say, that was an excellent move, Stan. If Charlie were in any condition to fight right now, he would have lost the match due to taking damage from both you and Kat. And Kat! To produce a strike with a stone sword that does that much damage to someone wearing a diamond helmet! Very impressive, both of you!”

Stan tried not to look too proud of himself, seeing as he had just injured his best friend. Kat, meanwhile, was trying to hide the fact that she was blushing.

“Well, Charlie, you'd better not fight anymore seeing as you don't have a helmet, but we still have to finish this fight. Kat, where's your sword?”

“Over there,” she said sheepishly, gesturing to a handle
and several chunks of stone. The impact with Charlie's helmet had reduced her weapon to rubble.

“Girl, you are good at this!” Sally laughed as she picked up the remains of Kat's sword from the floor. “It must have taken a ton of power to shatter a stone sword in one blow. Here,” she said, picking up Charlie's sword off the ground and tossing it to her. “Match point! Ready? And . . . FIGHT!”

This time there was no contest. Kat was simply more talented with a sword than Stan was, and she delivered a blow to his leg and won the match in a matter of seconds.

“Point to Kat! Stan, zero . . . Kat, three. Kat wins!” she boomed. “Now, come on, I still have crafting to show you guys.”

The three friends stripped off the training suits with pleasure—they were really quite uncomfortable after a while. They followed Sally down the ladder and into the crafting room below them.

Sally explained that the tables with tools on them were called “crafting tables,” and that they used these to create a wide variety of different items. Sally handed them each a copy of a book exactly like the one Stan had gotten out of the chest that first day in Elementia.

Sally gave Stan, Kat, and Charlie instructions to craft certain items, and she said to use anything in the chests to do so. They all proved to be quite capable of crafting. They
crafted their own wooden planks and then crafting tables, and then some sticks, a stone sword, a stone axe, a bow, some arrows, and leather armor.

After they had learned how to craft sufficiently, and Sally had explained how to smelt (changing the properties of certain blocks by putting them in a furnace), they headed back to the room, with a long, hard, successful day behind them. Sally once again came to talk to Stan. He was waiting—it was becoming a thing that they did. She sat down.

“You're really good with a sword,” she said.

“No I'm not! Kat was better!” he said, wondering why she would say this.

“Yes, she is better with a sword than you are. But you were innovative. Once you realized what you were doing, you managed to score two points with two people going against you. That's not something just anybody could do.”

“Thanks,” he said, smiling at her. “I had a good teacher.”

She smiled back at him. “You'd better get to bed, noob. Tomorrow's your day with Jayden, and you can't expect him to be as nice as me. Get some rest. You'll need it.” And with that she went to her own bed.

S
tan woke up the next morning to a hissing sound.

“Very funny, guys,” he mumbled. “That actually sounds a lot like a real Creep—aaauuuggghhh!”

This time, it was no prank. An actual Creeper was standing right next to Stan, and he was staring right into its horrible, empty face. The monster was beginning to swell, and in the split second before the inevitable explosion, Stan flew at the monster and punched it in the face.

To Stan's amazement, instead of exploding, the Creeper flew backward. As it walked back toward him, it suddenly keeled over sideways, an arrow protruding from the side of its head. Everyone woke up to the sound of Stan's yell, and Rex started barking. Archie still stood with his bow in hand, aiming exactly where the monster's head had been. The body disappeared, leaving a small mess of gray powder beneath it.

“What's going on?” yelled Kat, holding her sword up.

“Yeah, what's with all the noise?” whined G. “I'm trying to sleep here!”

“A Creeper got in,” said Stan.

“What?” said Sally, looking disheveled, not at all like her usual self. “How did a Creeper get in . . . hang
on. Why is it so dark in here? Where are the torches?”

She was right. The windows around the edges of the building provided the only source of light. Besides that it was dark.

“Yeah, where are the torches?” asked Jayden, who was still breathing heavily. “Did someone steal them?”

“I guess so,” said Charlie, looking around. “But why? Why would somebody break in here just to steal the torches? And the door?” he added, for he had just noticed that the door, too, was missing.

“It was probably just some random Griefer. You know, a player that likes giving other players crap for no reason,” said Archie, putting his bow back into his inventory. “Felt like having a laugh by making it so that monsters could just come in here in the night.”

“Yeah,” said Stan as he remembered how Mr. A had attacked them for no apparent reason. “Yeah, a Griefer would do something like that.”

“Well, it's good that thing woke us up, actually. I was about to oversleep,” said Jayden. “It's my turn to make breakfast, so I'll go get some stuff for that. Sally, you go down to the storehouse and craft us a new door and some torches.” Sally nodded and ran out of the hole where the door used to be, followed closely by Jayden.

Sally came back shortly, and she put new torches on the
walls and fixed the new door in the frame. Jayden arrived not long after, holding some wheat and a brown powder. He put it on the crafting table, and before long he had created a batch of cookies. Everyone had some—they were chocolate chip, and they tasted delicious.

“Okay,” said Jayden after they had all finished and Kat had calmed the still-barking Rex by feeding him some rotten flesh. “Come with me, you three. We have axe training and farming today.”

Kat and Charlie filed out of the room with Stan in the rear, feeling sure that he would not be very good at axe fighting. Frankly, he had always been slightly awkward, and he did not imagine that swinging a long stick with a hunk of metal on the end would be his forte. As he realized this, Stan felt suddenly sullen. Charlie had proven to be exceptional with a pickaxe, and the same with Kat and her sword. If he couldn't master axe fighting, what would he have to fight with? But as Stan left the room, he could have sworn he heard Sally whisper, “Good luck, noob,” in his ear and instantly, he felt more confident.

They followed Jayden down the road and were surprised when they entered Crazy Steve's farm.

“What are we doing here?” asked Stan.

“Well, what better place to learn about axe use than at a farm?” asked Jayden. “As part of the program, you'll be
doing some volunteer work here, helping my brother with the farming.”

This made sense, and the four players walked into an empty yard enclosed by fences. In the adjacent pumpkin field, Crazy Steve was tilling some new land with his hoe. Stan was relieved to see, judging by Steve's calm and methodic demeanor, that he was not QPOed.

“Hey, bro,” the farmer said, and he tipped his straw hat as the teacher and three students entered through the gate. “Ya three gonna help an old farmer with his work today? Dose Mooshrooms are giving me quite a hard time, and I could use da extra hands.”

“You'll get your help, Steve,” replied Jayden. “We have axe fighting to do first.”

Stan's stomach did another flip as he thought of the pressure surrounding his mastery of the axe, which Jayden pulled out of a chest in the enclosure.

“The key,” said Jayden, holding up the axe and demonstrating proper form, “is to let the axe guide you. It knows what to do. You are not the master of the axe. You are simply its modest guide.”

“Oh, brother,” grumbled Kat under her breath. Jayden proceeded to explain the basic mechanics of axe fighting, which Stan understood surprisingly well.

“To help you appreciate the art, each of you must pass a
challenge.” He called out, “Yo, Steve! Toss me four pumpkins, stat!”

Crazy Steve may have been old, but he was strong. He picked up four pumpkins growing in the field and tossed them all to Jayden in two throws. Jayden put three of the pumpkins in the chest and then pulled out something Stan had never seen before. It appeared to be a large block made out of snow. Jayden took out another. He put one snow block down toward the back of the empty lot, and put the other on top of it. He turned to Stan, Charlie, and Kat.

“Your goal in this exercise is to get across this red line.” He gestured to line of red dust behind the pile of snow that Stan hadn't noticed before. “You also must kill the enemy that I am about to create.”

The three new players all started talking at once.

“What do you mean,
create
?”

“Why isn't the snow melting?”

“Are you going to make a Creeper or something?”

“How does that work?”

“Why isn't the snow melting?”

“How are we supposed to survive without armor?”

“This honestly can't be safe!”

“Why isn't the snow melting?!”

Jayden waited for the questions to die down before he continued. “I'll demonstrate, and all your questions will be
answered. Charlie, could you come here, please?”

Looking scared stiff, and with good reason, Charlie walked over to the tall pile of snow. Jayden tossed him a pumpkin and said, “Now, Charlie, when I say go, put that pumpkin on top of the snow pile. Got it?” Charlie nodded, looking confused. Stan shared his puzzlement. He had no idea what Jayden was about to do.

Jayden stood at the opposite end of the enclosure from the red line and pile of snow and pulled an iron axe out of the trunk. He stood with the axe at his side, got in a fighting stance, and said, “Ready, Charlie? And . . . GO!”

Charlie placed the pumpkin on the snow pile, and immediately fell backward screaming, a look of horror and amazement on his face. The pile of snow with the pumpkin had turned into some type of animated snowman. Sticks had sprouted out of its sides, and it was hurling snowballs that it seemed to procure from nowhere rapid-fire at Jayden, who was running toward the snowman. Jayden was agile—not one of the snowballs hit him as he charged the snowy beast.

Then, as Jayden reached the snowman, he jumped in the air and did a sort of midair twirl, just dodging one of the snowballs, and his axe sliced through the bottom chunk of the snowman. Another twirl saw the middle section cleaved in two, and with another jumping spin the axe sliced clear
through the pumpkin head. The snowman was seriously damaged, not throwing snowballs anymore, and seemed to be struggling just to stay upright. Jayden was ruthless, though, and with one last jump into the air he delivered an almighty blow with the axe straight down on the snowman's head. The entire pile of pumpkin and snow fell to two sides, snowballs rained onto the ground, and the pumpkin burst apart and split into nothing but seeds and a few pieces of orange flesh.

Completely ignoring the gaping mouths of his three students, Jayden wiped the snow and pumpkin guts off his axe and calmly walked across the red line.

Stan, Charlie, and Kat exploded into cheers. None of them was entirely sure what they had just seen, but it was certainly spectacular. “That was amazing!” Stan yelled.

“Yeah, it was! And what exactly was that thing you just killed?” asked Kat.

“Oh, that was just a Snow Golem,” explained Jayden. “They use snowballs to keep away monsters and unwanted guests. So, which of you wants to try first?”

The smile fell from Stan's face. He had forgotten that he would have to do what Jayden had just done. Jayden made it look so easy!
What if I just end up looking like an idiot?
Stan thought.

“I'll take the bullet,” Charlie said meekly, stepping forward. The others looked surprised, even Jayden, though
he still tossed Charlie the axe. Charlie never volunteered to go first.

“Well, snowballs don't hurt, do they?” said Charlie, taking his stance as Jayden readied the Golem. “What's the worst that can happen?”

Famous last words
, thought Stan.

And he turned out to be right, as Charlie's trial was a bona fide disaster. The second Jayden yelled go, Charlie dashed forward, but he instantly fell back on his butt, still grabbing the handle of the axe—he had clearly underestimated its weight. With Charlie on the ground, the Snow Golem had a clear shot at Charlie with the snowballs. Each snowball knocked Charlie into the air a little, but he was so bad at dodging them that he was actually blasted into the air by the rapid-fire stream of snow. It was only a hoe thrown spear-style by Crazy Steve, which impaled itself in the Golem's face, that stopped Charlie from being lifted to a fatal height. Still, Charlie was pretty badly hurt when he fell back down, and a disgruntled Jayden had to pull out another golden apple to fix Charlie's leg.

Kat's trial was almost as bad. She decided to throw the axe with all her considerable strength toward the Golem's head. It would have worked had her aim been better. The flying axe ended up hitting and killing a cow in the adjacent field. From there, it was all Kat could do to keep from being lifted into the air as Charlie had. She was better at dodging
than him, but she had no weapons, and she only dodged about half the rapid-fire snowballs. Jayden had to pull out a bow and arrows from the chest and fire three shots into the Snow Golem's pumpkin head to put an end to it.

Finally, Stan took the axe. He dropped into a fighting stance with a nervous pit in his stomach. He hoped he wouldn't just drop the axe like Charlie, or do something else to make himself look stupid. Jayden put the pumpkin head in place, the Snow Golem became animated, and Stan took off.

The first thing he noticed was that the axe wasn't as heavy as he had thought. It felt rather light in his hand as he ran with it trailing behind him. The second thing he noticed was how easy it was to dodge the snowballs—he simply knew when to duck and weave around them, and in no time, Stan had reached the Snow Golem. What happened next was so incredible that even Jayden didn't believe his eyes.

As he neared the Snow Golem, Stan had a brilliant idea. Instead of trying to copy what Jayden had done and doing a triple spin, Stan launched himself forward into the air and spun with all his might, axe stretched in front of him. He slammed into the Snow Golem with such speed and such incredible revolution that the Golem was cut into dust as if it was in a blender set to liquefy.

Stan landed with one hand and two feet on the ground, well past the red line, breathing hard, his axe held in the
remaining hand, and there was no evidence that there had ever been an enemy there. Nobody could even see any pieces of the pumpkin. The only evidence of the snow was the light dust hanging in the air, creating a rainbow in the light from the square sun.

There was an absolute explosion of cheers from Charlie and Kat, and Jayden just looked amazed. Stan's smile filled his face. The move had seemed so natural, so easy! Then he noticed Crazy Steve's face, and his smile faltered.

The look was shrewd and calculating. It was as if the old-timer was seeing Stan for the first time and was now trying to figure something out about him, as if there were something hidden in Stan's pixilated body that he was trying to decipher. But his friends came over, and Stan soon forgot about the old farmer.

“That was amazing!” cried Kat.

“Wow! Awesome, man!” exclaimed Charlie.

“How did you do that!?” asked Jayden, eyes wide.

Stan shrugged, unable to stop grinning. “I don't know. It just kind of happened.”

“Well, it was amazing!” Kat said again, and Charlie nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

“I think we may have just found your talent!” said a smiling Jayden. Stan's heart leaped. And as the training continued, it seemed that Stan had indeed discovered something that he
could do without trying. Like Charlie with the pickaxe and Kat with the sword, Stan blew away all the others in the sparring ring. He even managed to just beat out Jayden. Now Jayden was even more impressed, not to mention slightly jealous.

After a farming lesson that was no problem at all (though none of them particularly liked farming, they were all capable of doing it with ease, and Steve really appreciated the help convincing the stubborn Mooshrooms to breed), they put away their axes and hoes and headed out. Jayden was just about to exit under the hedge when a hand grabbed his shoulder.

“Yo, Jay!” Stan turned around and saw Crazy Steve speaking to Jayden. Jay turned. “Could I talk to Stan here for a few minutes?” Jay nodded and walked off, the others following behind him.

“Come on, noob,” said Steve as he walked back into the farm. Stan was apprehensive. He had had misgivings about Crazy Steve since the episode with the QPO and was not keen on talking with him one-on-one. When they got to the cow fence, Crazy Steve sat down on a stretch of fence and looked Stan straight in the eye.