Читать книгу Quest for Justice - Sean Wolfe Fay - Страница 12

“Go­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­d­ m­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­o­r­n­i­n­g, f­r­e­e­e­e­e­e­e­e­e­e­e­e­e­e­e­s­h m­e­a­t!”

Stan sprang up and out of bed, startled by the deafening noise. He looked wildly around and saw Kat and Charlie still in their beds, Kat swinging her sword (which she had apparently slept with in her hand) around, yelling, “Die die die die die!” Charlie sat bolt upright, his hand clutching his chest. Archie was standing on top of the table with the tools on it, his hands cupped; clearly, it had been him who had yelled. G and Jayden were behind him, laughing hard at the new players’ reactions.

“Oh God, you three … you three should have seen the looks … the looks on your faces!” Jayden managed to get out between laughs.

“We’ve had some pretty … some pretty good react … reactions,” wheezed G, clutching his sides, “but you guys … that was so over the top! Especially you, Kat! ‘Die die die die die!’” he said, setting off another round of laughter.

Kat stood up, walked over to G, put her hands on her hips, and stared at him in the eye. “That was not funny! What if I had hit someone? Someone could have died!”

“I’m sorry, but why were you sleeping with a sword anyway, Kat?” asked Archie.

“Aw, did da wittle girl have a bad dweam about da cweepas comin to get her?” said G in a mock-baby voice, to another round of hysterics.

Kat pocketed her sword, walked up to G, who was now cramping with laughter, and punched him hard in the chest.

“Ouch!” G yelled, doubling over. “Man, Kat, that actually hurt! Should I punch you now? Huh?”

Kat smirked. “Even in a game, I doubt that you would hit a girl, unless she was armed and trying to kill you.”

“Huh? What was that about girls trying to kill people?”

Sally had just walked into the room. She said, “Kat, if you want to kill these five, I’m more than happy to help you.”

“I’d like to take that offer, please,” Kat replied, rubbing her eyes, “because they just woke me up by yelling at me.”

“It was hilarious!” laughed G. “She started freaking out with her sword, which she slept with …” and the three older boys fell to the ground in fits of laughter.

“You three are so immature,” she said arrogantly. “Anyway, get off the crafting table, Archie. I’m crafting us some breakfast.” He complied, still sniggering.

“Where’d you go this morning anyway, Sal?” Jayden asked inquisitively.

“Yeah, we had to pull the prank without ya,” added G.

“Pardon me, boys, but I think you’ll be happy when you see what I have planned.” Sally reached into her inventory and pulled out three buckets of milk, an egg, some sugar and some wheat.

“Oh boy, Sal, are you making what I think you’re making?” Archie boomed eagerly.

“Well, when it’s my turn to make breakfast, I prefer to do it right,” she said as she started a complex series of crafts with the food items. “Especially when we have guests.” And Stan could have sworn that she caught his eye.

“Here we go,” she said after a minute of waiting. She held up a square cake. From what Stan could see, it was strawberry shortcake, which he didn’t understand, as Sally had added neither strawberries nor frosting. “Dig in.”

There were six equal pieces of cake. Everybody was given a slice except for Sally. Stan was about to eat his piece when he looked at Sally. She was glancing at him in an expectant way. Stan had a feeling he knew why.

“Uh, Sally? Do you, uh, wanna have some of my cake?”

“Why, thank you, Stan, I would like that very much.” She grabbed a knife from the table with the tools and cut Stan’s piece down the middle. She took half of it and ate it in one bite, giving a loud burp afterwards. G and Archie sniggered, but Stan wasn’t sure if it was because of Sally belching or him sharing his cake.

After they were finished eating, Jayden stood up. “Alrighty then, thank you, Sally, for the excellent breakfast.” There were murmurs of consent. “If anyone is still hungry, we’ll stop by my brother’s farm on the way to the school for watermelons. New inductees, put all your things in the extra chest in the corner over there, and follow me.”

After they had put their things away, the players left the building and went down the ladder, leaving Rex sitting in the room. As they walked down the main road of the village, they stopped just before the Town Hall and turned into the farm to the right of the Hall.

“This is where my brother lives,” explained Jayden, as they walked under the hedge that marked the entrance to the farm. “He’s the most productive farmer in this entire village, and the only one who is a higher level than Adoria. He’s level fifty-four, five higher than she is. The only problem is that he’s—”

“Hey, Jay!”

A player with wild grey hair and farmer’s clothing was running up to them, holding what appeared to be an iron hoe.

“Hey, hey, you guys! Hey, you guys are new?” he asked Stan, Kat and Charlie in a jittery fashion. “Ya look new, carryin’ around all dat stone crap, ya know, hey! Hey! Ya want some Lightnin’? Cause I know this great place where—”

“Steve, again? Really!? I thought that we agreed that you wouldn’t be QPOed on duty!” Jayden cried in an exasperated voice.

“I ain’t QPOed, whadevah’d give ya dat ideeeeee-ooooooooooooohhhh …” and then the crazed player – Steve, Jayden had called him – slunk down to the ground, clearly passed out.

“Oh, for the love of God,” moaned Jayden.

“What the … what … what just happened?” asked Kat, looking repulsed at the still body on the ground.

“Is he gonna be OK?” asked Charlie.

“Well, Charlie, yes he is, but I’m getting awfully sick of healing him,” sighed Jayden as he pulled an apple out of his bag. This apple was shimmering golden in the sunlight, and Jayden bent over and stuffed it into the player’s mouth. Jayden stood up.

“To answer your question, Kat, he was on a potion called the Potion of Swiftness, also called QPO or Lightning. It’s a potion that’ll give you a quick burst of energy, but it will make you weak for a short while afterwards. Steve here took too much QPO one night at a Spleef match, and he hasn’t been able to drink it without passing out afterwards ever since. It’s a shame. It really did help him run this farm more productively.”

“Hold on,” said Stan. “He runs the farm? That’s your brother?” He decided to save the question of what Spleef was for a later day.

“Yep,” said Jayden grimly. “You see, the only way to heal him is to give him a golden apple, which would normally heal you from an injury. The problem is, apples are really rare, and gold isn’t that common either, and that’s what you use to craft the golden apples.”

Steve had begun to stir. As he came to, Stan took an opportunity to look at the farm.

It was gigantic – it must have taken up a quarter of the entire Adorian village. There were fields and fields covered in wheat, pumpkins, watermelon and tall stalks that Stan couldn’t identify. Irrigation ditches ran between the plants. Cocoa bean pods grew on logs that looked like they came from a jungle. There were also pastures. There was a whole herd of cows and a group of pigs. Stan saw some sheep with white, black and brown wool, and some with no wool.

Stan looked around and also saw chickens, a pool filled with squid, some wolves and some things that looked like wild cats. But the most peculiar thing was something that resembled a cow, except that it was red and white and covered with mushrooms actually growing out of its back. While there were herds of the other animals, there were only three red-and-white cows – two large ones and a small one. Stan guessed that these were the things that Jayden had just led to the village from the Mushroom Island. What did he call them? Oh yeah, Mooshrooms. Funny name …

Steve had come back around and was beginning to stand up. He put his blocky hand to his head and moaned.

“Oh … ugh … oh, what happened?”

“Don’t give me that!” fumed Jayden. “You know perfectly well what happened. You know that you can’t be QPOed on the job! I’m running out of golden apples to heal you with. Apples don’t just grow on trees! Well, not in this game, anyway … but the point is, you’ve gotta be more responsible, Steve!”

“Hey, who are those guys?” asked Steve, who had not been listening to Jayden and was now looking distractedly at Stan and his friends.

Jayden looked furious and was about to yell at Steve again when G said, “Don’t, Jay, there’s no point. Steve, this is Stan, Charlie and Kat. Guys, this is CrazySteve1026, aka Steve.”

“Hey, noobs,” said Steve, disregarding the exasperated sigh of Stan and the smirk of Sally. “About tuh start da programme, I assume? Yes? Alrighty den, what can I help ya with, little brother?” asked Steve, turning back to Jayden.

“We just need some watermelons,” said Jayden. “Sal made some cake for breakfast but some of us are still …”

“Say no more, Jay,” said Steve. He then proceeded to walk over to the nearby watermelon field and bring his hoe down into two watermelons. They burst open, leaving a mess of watermelon slices in their places. He picked them up and walked over to the group of players, handing two slices to each of them.

“Man, dis shtuff ish good,” mumbled G.

“Yeah, you should make a watermelon cake next time, Sal,” boomed Archie.

“You’re welcome,” spat an annoyed Sally.

Once they finished their watermelon, Steve said, “Alrighty den, all fed? Good, den off ya kids go. Have fun at ya little programme. Be careful. Any more deaths and da King might shut da programme down.”

Charlie spat out his watermelon. “What?” he sputtered. “What’d you just say?” But Steve just laughed manically and went back to the farm to feed some wheat to the Mooshrooms. The seven players walked out of the farm feeling excited and, in Charlie’s case, petrified.

Stan, Kat and Charlie weren’t the only ones starting the programme. There were also five other people there, all boys under level five, all determined to learn how to play Minecraft. After a brief introduction to the other five, the group was divided in half. Four of the other players went with G to learn about mining and pickaxe fighting, and Stan, Kat, Charlie and one other boy who looked exactly like Stan in darker clothing went with Archie to learn archery.

Archie took them to the firing range. It was a long clearing located deep in the woods, away from people. Archie explained the proper technique of handling the bow. Stan and his friends listened intently, but the fourth player couldn’t focus. He just kept staring at Kat with his mouth open. It was apparent that he hadn’t expected to find any girls in Minecraft.

After the explanation of the theory, they started target practice. There were lamps located on the range at different distances and heights. Archie stood to the side as he flipped switches to turn the lamps on and off. The goal was to hit the lamp that was on. The only one who was OK at the archery was Kat. She managed to hit one lamp twice before it switched off. Stan hit one of the lamps every time he shot, but it took him time to think about the trajectory of the arrow and he hardly ever got a hit on a lit lamp because the lamp changed before he could fire his shot.

Charlie was abysmal. He only hit a lamp one time, though he was the one who shot the most arrows. His arrows usually landed a good distance away from the target. Once his arrow came dangerously close to impaling Archie in the chest, but Archie whipped out his sword and deflected it. The other boy on the range might have been a good archer, but he didn’t do anything because he still couldn’t stop staring at Kat.

After target practice, it was around three in the afternoon judging by Archie’s clock, and he said that it was time for the last activity of the day: sparring. The fighters were given diamond armour, which Archie told them had been enchanted to take all damage from the arrow fire without damaging the players themselves. Archie called the armour “training suits.” The players also were given a bow and a stack of arrows and told that the first one to score three hits with the arrows won.

The first match was Kat versus Stan. Stan knew who was going to win, and though he tried to fire as quickly as he could, Kat had won before he managed to sink a single arrow into her armour. The match lasted five minutes, and though Archie was hiding it well, they could tell that he was impatient by the time it was over.

The match between Charlie and the other boy was over in ten seconds, but that was mainly due to the fact that the boy couldn’t stop gaping at Kat for long enough to stop Charlie from actually walking to within one block of him and firing the three arrows into his chestplate at point-blank range. Archie proceeded to slap his own face with his blocky hand at this.

The match between Kat and Charlie lasted longer than the one between her and Stan, but that was mainly due to that fact that Charlie’s strategy consisted of running in an unpredictable pattern and not trying to shoot at all. The match stopped after Kat ran out of arrows. Archie then rolled his eyes, stood up, whipped out his bow, and proceeded to fire three arrows at the still-moving Charlie in a matter of seconds. All three arrows sunk themselves into Charlie’s headgear.

After a long day, Archie stood up, sighed, and said, “Let’s go.” It was clear from the tone of his voice that he didn’t think that any of them had a knack for archery. They all walked back to the motel to go to bed feeling slightly disappointed.

As everyone was getting ready for bed, Sally asked Stan as she pulled off her armour, “So, what did you think of your first day of training?”

“Well,” said Stan, “let’s just say I hope tomorrow is better, a lot better.” And they both laughed.

The next day was considerably more enjoyable by all accounts. After a breakfast of bread, the four new players followed G to the outskirts of the village and took a ride in some mine carts to the entrance of a large mine.

The upper mine was illuminated by torchlight, but Stan still couldn’t make out the sides. It was enormous. As they went further 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 programme 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 afterwards, 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 armour. They obliged. As Stan was pulling on the diamond trousers, 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 sniggered. “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. “OK 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 armour. 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, towards 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 backwards, and at the first opportunity he rushed forwards 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 towards 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 OK, 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 armour 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 any more 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 armour.

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.