The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message

“That is very interesting, sir,” said Stan, which he sincerely meant, “but where do you come into this?”

“Oh. Well, you see, I was still very much in the King’s favour, although I was very upset with him for killing and banishing those players, all of whom were my good friends. But paranoia had twisted King Kev’s mind by that point. There were rumours of a rebellion going around, so any of the alleged leaders of the hypothetical rebellion were killed. That’s why no sane player who is in league with the King today would even joke about overthrowing him.

“My problems started when a rumour came up that the apothecaries in Element City were providing potions to a rebellion movement. I was lucky. Four of my friends and I were accused by King Kev of treason on the same day. There was me; there was the chief of Redstone Experiments, Mecha11; and there were the three Chiefs of Exploration, Bill33, Bob33 and Ben33. There was a high amount of unrest in the kingdom due to the number of people that the King had killed, so he pledged to never kill anyone again unless they were proven guilty. Instead of killing us, King Kev banished us from the city, warning us to never again run into a government official, or we would risk dire consequences. I opened my own Nether portal here in the jungle and began stockpiling potions. I have no idea what happened to the Mechanist, or to Bill, Bob and Ben.

“So you see,” said the old player, and Stan sensed that he was about to say something important, “if you truly want to overthrow the King, I would be happy to use my knowledge of Elementia’s inner workings, as well as the potions I have stockpiled, to help you in any way that I can.”

“Thank you!” Charlie threw himself at the Apothecary, and began wringing his hand. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“Yes, we really appreciate your help, sir,” said Kat, and Stan could tell that she finally trusted him.

“So I have a question, sir,” said Stan, voicing something that had been on his mind since that morning. “How many people do you think that we’ll need to launch an assault on the King’s castle in Element City? If we can take the castle, then we’ll have control over the city.”

The old player thought for a moment and then said, “Well, I imagine that the King probably has around two hundred men in his military. You see, King Kev has the ability to call any of his citizens to do anything at any time. While he typically commands the lower-level players to take care of jobs in Element City, his military of two hundred players is made up of only the best fighters in Elementia … mainly upper-level players, that is. So, assuming that the lower-level citizens of the army were to abandon the army if you attacked the castle, you would still have, say, another one hundred and thirty or so men to face.”

Stan was shocked. He looked at Charlie and Kat. “Where can we possibly get that many people to invade the city?”

Kat was about to answer, but the Apothecary cut her off by saying, “How about the Adorian Village?”

There was a moment of silence. Then Kat said, “Um, sir, weren’t you listening? The King’s riot control destroyed the Adorian Village. Everybody who lived there is dead now.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” said the Apothecary with a smile. “New players join Elementia every day. Most of them will still be inclined to follow the path to the Adorian Village. And also, don’t be so sure that all the people that were in that village are dead.”

“How could any of them have survived?” asked Charlie incredulously. “They blew up all the stone houses and burned down the wooden ones!”

“Well,” the Apothecary replied, “One thing that I didn’t mention in my story is that the King has largely ignored the Adorian Village, as have the majority of the Council of Operators. Avery and I were the only ones on the council who aided young Adoria when she was a new player on the scene who wanted to create a village for the new players of Minecraft. We helped her design the village, and the houses within.

“Every few days, the Adorian Village has a drill. You must have missed it since you were there for such a short time. They prepare for a large-scale Griefer attack, which was essentially what you described to me. Each of those houses has an underground survival cellar, which can sustain four people for a month. The entrance is very inconspicuous; only the most observant soldier would recognize it. They also have that mine to hide in. I’d be surprised if more than a third of the inhabitants of the Adorian Village were actually killed in that attack.”

Stan’s heart lifted at the thought that there might have been far fewer casualties of the attack on the Adorian Village than he had originally thought.

“And I’ll bet that those survivors are furious with the King right now,” added Charlie. “And I’ll bet that Jayden and Sally and the others are still training those players, and they have no clue where to go now.”

“Well, that’s settled, then,” said Kat. “The survivors of the Adorian Village will be our main reinforcements when we attack the King’s castle. One of us should go back to the village and tell the others of our plan. The other three should try to find some supplies, like diamonds, steaks and golden apples. We need enough materials for an army of, say, one hundred.” She looked at the Apothecary. “Any idea where we might find all that? Because Charlie and I have been discussing it all afternoon, and we’ve got nothing.”

The Apothecary replied, “I actually might.”

Stan was caught off guard. He had expected the old player to shoot down all their ideas, not offer to help them prepare for their battle.

“Oh, hold your horses. I don’t know for sure where it is. But what I do know is that in the days of my seat on the Council of Operators, I heard rumours going around that the King had created a secret stash of armour, weapons, food – everything he would need to re-create his army if he was ever ousted from power. There were several rumours about where the stash was, but the one I heard most said that it’s underground, at the centre of Ender Desert. I’m not positive that’s where the stash is, but there definitely is a stash, and there was too much talk about that location for there not to be at least something there.”

Stan jumped up. “Charlie!” he yelled.

Everyone looked at him, and Charlie replied, “Yes?” with a concerned look on his face.

“Charlie, you have the best mining instincts of anyone. G said so himself! If there’s anyone who could find an underground stash of supplies, it’s you.”

The Apothecary stood up and slammed his fist on the table. “It’s settled then! I myself shall go back to the Adorian Village and work with Adoria’s pupils to train their new players for battle with the King’s forces. The three of you must go into the Ender Desert and find the secret stash. I swear to you, if the stash isn’t there, something will be, and maybe it will be something that you can use to your advantage.”

The old player walked over to a chest and put his leather armour into it. With a start, Stan realized for the first time that the Apothecary had a skin, or appearance, that was strikingly similar to Crazy Steve’s, save the white beard and the potion sashes. The Apothecary reached into the chest and pulled out a diamond chestplate. He stared at it for a moment.

“This place has given me so much, and then taken it away,” said the old player to his reflection. “It’s time for me to make this server a place that future generations can call home.”

He pulled the chestplate on over his head, and Stan watched in awe as the Apothecary pulled out a full set of diamond armour, including boots and leggings, and slipped them on. He then drew out his weapons of choice: two diamond pickaxes, glinting in the torchlight. He turned back to the players.

“Charlie, come here please,” said the old player. Charlie obliged, wondering what would happen next.

“Charlie, I want you to have this,” said the Apothecary as he reached out towards Charlie, diamond pickaxe in his hand.

“What? Wait,” said Charlie, eyes widening in disbelief. “Are you serious right now?”

“Completely,” said the old player, as Charlie took the pickaxe. “A good pickaxe is the best weapon and tool that you can have underground. This old pickaxe has served me well. I’ve brought it with me on several deep-mining expeditions, as well as every time I’ve gone to the Nether. Besides, I have two, so I want you to have that one.”

Charlie spun the pickaxe in his hand a few times and tapped the diamond pick of the tool. “Thank you,” he said in silent awe, still staring at the weapon.

“OK, I have a few things for the rest of you. But first, let me ask this: Are any of you over level, say, ten?”

Stan was about to say no, but Kat jumped up and said, “I am! I killed a bunch of animals this morning, and I levelled up to fifteen!”

The Apothecary smiled. “Good, good. Now, would you like to exchange your levels for enhancements to your gear?”

“Would I!” exclaimed Kat. “How can I do that?”

“With that,” said the Apothecary, and he gestured to the black table with the diamonds and red velvet on top. The book still levitated. They all walked over to it.

“This is an Enchanting Table,” said the Apothecary. “If you have enough experience, this little gadget will let you exchange that experience for enchantments for your gear. Do you have any weapons or armour that you’d like to enchant, Kat?”

“Yeah, I have an iron sword, helmet and chestplate back at the base,” she said. “I also have this bow.” She lifted it up. “So are you saying that I could use this table thingy to give my sword special powers?” she asked excitedly.

“Yes.” The Apothecary smiled. “After I finish giving out the rest of the things you will need to pull off this revolution, you can go back and get it,” he said. He then proceeded to walk back over to his chest and pull out a smaller chest. This one was black, and it appeared to be locked with a green orb.

“This is an Ender Chest,” the old player explained, handing it to Stan. “If you put any items in this chest, they will be accessible from all other Ender Chests everywhere, even in other dimensions like the Nether. The King doesn’t use Ender Chests – he doesn’t trust them. When I get to the Adorian Village, I am going to put down a second Ender Chest that I have, which, as far as I know, is the only other Ender Chest on the server.

“Now, quick note about Ender Chests: They’re incredibly hard to make, and once you put them down, if you pick them up again, they won’t work. So only put down the chest once you’ve located the secret stash. When you put items in the chest, the green lock on my chest will emit purple particles, and I will take the materials out and give them to the Adorian fighters. This is the only practical way that we’ll be able to transport the giant amount of materials from the secret stash to the Adorian Village.

“You got all that, Stan?” the Apothecary asked, and Stan nodded. This was a brilliant way to discreetly transport materials across the server in an instant without arousing suspicion.

The Apothecary walked over to the brewing stands on his table. He plucked off twelve potions: nine red ones and three orange ones.

“These are potions that will help you on your way to finding the stash. I have four for each of you. I could give you more but they’ll just take up space in your inventory. Just swigging one of the red Potions of Healing will give you a good health boost in the middle of a fight, and if you accidentally fall or tunnel into lava, that orange Potion of Fire Resistance will keep you safe.” He handed out three healing potions and one fire resistance potion to each player. They firmly attached them to their belts, ready to swig at a moment’s notice.

“Now, Kat, are you ready to enchant that sword of yours?” asked the Apothecary.

Kat, who had been squirming in anticipation like a child about to pee, yelled out, “Are you kidding? Let’s go!” She whipped out her stone sword and sprinted towards the door, threw it open, and stopped.

“What’s the holdup, Kat?” asked Charlie as he pulled out his new diamond pickaxe and Stan pulled out his stone axe.

Kat was looking out the door. In the bright light from outside Stan could see the look of terror on her face. This was odd, he realized with a jolt, because it was the middle of the night.

CHAPTER 12

THE DESERT

The forest was on fire. The fire was about a kilometre away, but the light was still burning bright. Stan could tell that within minutes the entire area around their house would be burned down.

“The King’s men must have followed us out here somehow,” said Stan. “Do you think that they’ve found our stuff?”

“Yes,” replied the Apothecary, who was already pulling some cooked pork chops from his inventory. “They most likely found your items and deduced that you are still somewhere around here, and are now burning down the jungle in an attempt to flush you out. The fire will burn out before it gets here, but the King’s men will still find this house. You three need to get out of here, now.”

“But won’t they find you out here?” asked Charlie anxiously.

“I’ll hide underground,” the Apothecary replied. “And before they get here, I’ll lay down some trip wires that will activate the arrow dispensers. They’ll find the house, and they’ll think it’s been abandoned and try to loot it, but when the traps go off they’ll decide it’s not worth it. I’ll be fine. I’m experienced at hiding. But if they find you, they’ll execute all three of you on the spot.”

“But what about my sword?” Kat asked, as the Apothecary handed some bread to Stan.

“I’m sorry, Kat, but you’ll have to enchant something else. What about your stone sword?”

“Nah, that’ll wear down really fast … I know!” She pulled out her bow. “So, what do I do?”

The Apothecary replied, “Just sit down, put your weapon down on the table, and stare at the book. The right enchantment should instantly take to your bow.”

Kat walked over to the table and kneeled in front of it. She put her bow down on the table, and the book opened. She stared into it, and her blocky eyes started to glow, as did the book and the bow. Seconds later, there was a flash of light, and Kat fell to the ground.

“Are you all right?” asked Stan, helping Kat up.

“Yeah, I’m OK,” she replied. She stood up and picked up her bow, which was now glowing purple with power. “Whoa,” she said in an awed voice. “Infinity enchantment.”

“Excellent,” said the Apothecary, as he belted several potions. “Now any arrow fired from your bow will reappear in your quiver. You’ll never run out of arrows again. The table must have known that you’re going on a long journey.”

“To that point, we’d better get going! The fire’s getting closer,” yelled Charlie.

“Right,” said Stan. “Sir, thank you for everything you’ve done for us. We’ll meet back up with you at the Adorian Village after we find the stash.”

“Right. Good luck,” said the Apothecary as he laid a tripwire across the floor, and the three players, dog and cat rushed out of the back door.

They sprinted through the forest, weapons drawn. They had to fight off some monsters but had no time to pick up what the monsters had dropped. They kept on running and didn’t stop until they had reached the desert and had run a good distance into it.

They looked back at the jungle behind them. Stan could see that it was raining again. He sighed with relief. That should put the fire out. He guessed that it didn’t rain in the desert.

Stan looked up and realized that he was looking directly into the sun. They had run through the night. He also realized that he was famished – he hadn’t eaten since the previous day. He ate two of the loaves of bread that the Apothecary had given him, and he distributed the remaining two to Charlie and Kat. As he ate, Stan looked out into the desert to see what lay ahead, and his heart skipped a beat.

It was the tall, spindly figure that he had seen the previous morning in the jungle trees. In broad daylight, it looked menacing. Stan found its unnaturally long, thin arms and legs and its purple slits of eyes to be incredibly unnerving.

“Charlie, Kat, look!” They both looked up and saw it, too.

“What is that?” asked Charlie. “And why is it shaking?”

For the figure was indeed trembling, as if shivering with cold. Its jaw hung open, revealing terrifying black fangs, and it was staring at Charlie. Then, all of a sudden, it vanished in a puff of purple smoke. All three players looked at each other, scared to find out what would happen next.

Then, without warning, there was an earsplitting clang. Stan spun around and saw that the black figure had appeared behind Charlie. It had grabbed him by slamming its hands into the sides of Charlie’s rib cage. Stan watched in horror as the thing lifted Charlie, whose face showed unspeakable pain, into the air and proceeded to slam him, full force, into the ground headfirst. Charlie fell onto his front and was still.

The monster then let out a shriek. It was bleeding purple ooze from a cut on its side that had been inflicted by Kat’s sword. Kat drew the sword back and thrust it towards the fiend, but right as the point was about to pierce its back, the monster disappeared again in a puff of purple smoke. His instincts tingling, Stan whirled around and saw that the monster had indeed teleported about ten blocks behind him and was sprinting towards him fast. Stan raised his axe and threw it as hard as he could at the monster. The axe impaled itself in the monster’s chest, and the monster teleported away again after another shriek.

Seconds later, the monster reappeared between Kat and Stan, axe still in its chest. However, before it did anything, the monster looked up at the rising sun and, with a hateful glance at Stan, teleported away. Stan stood at the ready, waiting for the monster to reappear, but it didn’t. He sighed. Then he remembered.

“Charlie!” He rushed over to his friend. Kat had rolled him over onto his back. Charlie’s face was red and he wasn’t breathing.

Refusing to consider the worst, Stan surveyed his friend and saw that the monster’s arms had dented the sides of the chestplate, which were now pressing into Charlie’s side and making it impossible for him to breathe.

“Kat, give me your sword, quick!” Kat didn’t hesitate, and with two swift strokes of the weapon Stan cut the sides of the damaged iron armour and pulled it off. Charlie took a deep breath. Stan noticed that the iron helmet was dented beyond repair, too. He pulled it off and threw the useless thing aside. Charlie gave a sigh of relief.

Kat yanked one of the red potions off Charlie’s belt, popped the cork, and poured the potion into his mouth. He swallowed and sat up.

“Charlie!” Kat hugged him as Stan exclaimed, “Thank God you’re OK, man! Geez, you seem to get beat up a lot, don’t you?”

Charlie gave a weak smile as Kat let him go. “Hey,” he said in a strained voice, “it isn’t the first time I’ve been beaten up, and I think we all know that it won’t be the last.” They all chuckled. “And I remembered reading about that thing in the book. It was called an Enderman. It has really powerful physical attacks and the ability to teleport, and it gets provoked when you look at it.”

“Well, it certainly was powerful,” said Kat. “It made you lose your armour and one of your healing potions. And you lost your axe, Stan.”

In the excitement of Charlie’s recovery, Stan had momentarily forgotten about his axe. He sighed in disappointment.

“Man, why do you have such a hard time holding on to your weapons?” commented Kat. “What is this, the third one you’ve lost now?”

Stan counted on his hand. “There was the one the Zombie Pigman destroyed, the one that I left back at the house, this one … yep, this is the third. Where am I supposed to get a new weapon in the middle of the desert?”

As if on cue, there was a pained grunting sound behind them. They all turned around to see a lone Zombie burning to death in the sunlight. When this Zombie fell, there was the usual rotten flesh, but Stan saw a glint as well. They walked over to the corpse and saw that the Zombie had dropped an unused iron shovel, which he must have had in his inventory when he died. Stan fed the flesh to Rex and picked up the shovel.

“Well, it’s no axe, but it’ll have to do,” said Stan as he gripped the shovel like a baseball bat.

“Well, the centre of the desert should be to the southeast, if I remember correctly,” said Charlie as he pulled out his compass. “Let’s go.” And he led the trio out into the desert.

It was a long, boring walk. The desert was incredibly flat, and they passed nothing except a few cactuses and the occasional pond here and there. There were a few Creepers roaming around that tried to chase them, but they backed off when Lemon hissed at them. It turned out that the explosive creatures really were scared of cats.

When the three players arrived at what Charlie judged to be the approximate centre of the desert, they found a small cave opening in the side of a sandstone hill. Charlie pulled out his diamond pickaxe, and with one last glance at the sun, Stan and Kat followed Charlie down into the unknown mines.

Geno looked down in satisfaction as the sound of explosions reverberated out of the ground. Geno was his full tag, not just his nickname. He wore torn camo trousers, a biker’s jacket with tattoos and an eye patch over his left eye. On his jacket was a badge with the name of his team, RAT1, written on it in black letters. He was smiling down into the small hole. If there had been any life down there, it was gone now.

The explosions stopped, and a few moments later a head of black hair and olive skin, topped by an iron helmet, popped out of the ground.

“Find anything, Becca?” Geno asked in his brutal voice.

“Nah, there’s nothing down there,” replied Becca as she pulled herself out of the hole. It was now plain to see that she was wearing a full set of iron armour. “I didn’t see any items scattered. They must’ve known we were coming.”

“Gee, it couldn’t have been that fire that you set on the trees, could it, you idiot?” spat Geno.

“Don’t you call me an idiot, you moron,” growled Becca.

“Oh, well then let’s go right now!” yelled Geno, the vein in his temple popping, as he drew his diamond sword.

“Bring it!” yelled Becca, drawing the iron sword from her side. The two charged towards each other and were about to start fighting when two arrows glanced off their armour and stopped them in their tracks.

“Hey! We don’t need no fightin’, kids, all right? We’ve got a job to do here,” yelled the archer, a black player with a samurai armour skin covered by a leather tunic. “And for the record, Geno, it was me that started that fire last night, ’K? It was an accident. I used my fire bow instead of my powerful one by mistake. So shut up, or ya both get an arrow through the head.”

Geno and Becca lowered their weapons. As well as they could fight with swords, they knew that Leonidas could kill them in a second if he wanted to. They had never seen him miss with a bow.

“Whatever, Leo,” said Geno, sheathing his sword. “But tell Little Miss Bomb-Happy here to not immediately destroy every non-block she sees.”

“Oh, come on though, it’s so fun,” squealed Becca. It was true. She was RAT1’s resident demolition expert, a job she took very seriously.

“Hey!” yelled Leonidas, so loud that the other two shut up instantly. “If y’all remember, this is exactly how the last mission started out, with y’all foolin’ like noobs! We fail one more time, the King is gonna hang our heads on his wall. So come on! If there’s nothing in their old house, let’s go out into the jungle and look for ’em there.”

And with that, he pulled an arrow into position and shot something he sensed moving up in the tree. He walked over to the corpse that had fallen to earth and saw that it was nothing important, just an ocelot with items to collect. He walked into the jungle, and Geno and Becca followed, swords still in hands.