Arcum stood near the forest, watching as Stelle enthusiastically explained to her three friends about the current situation.
More people would mean more workers, and more workers meant getting things done faster.
The only problem was that they didn't know anything about Minecraft.
Arcum, however, wasn't going to stand still and brainstorm. He could think while he worked.
Taking out his axe, he started to gather more wood from the forest.
"I need to get ores," he murmured to himself. "That group could probably work on the main house first, and when we inevitably lure more people here..."
He picked up saplings that fell from the trees, planting them back down into the dirt.
"Then I can get more people to start working."
But another problem arose—why would people listen to him, specifically?
He would have to figure that out later, though. Arcum wasn't too proactive, always thinking of being proactive as a hassle.
Why be proactive when you could be reactive?
Finishing up with the wood gathering, Arcum made his way back to the group.
"So," Arcum announced as he came up behind them. "Who's who?"
They all turned to face Arcum.
"This is Fugue" Stelle introduced, gesturing towards the Foxian. She then gestured towards the researcher. "And this is Asta."
Arcum nodded. "Ok. I know the other one."
Argenti was too flamboyant for Arcum to really want to associate with. But he would if it meant he could survive.
"Do you all know how to survive?"
They all shook their heads in response to Arcum's question.
"Great," Arcum said. "Well, all you need to know is how to build."
Opening his inventory, Arcum dropped half of the stacks of oak logs that he had gathered from the forest.
"Here's some wood," he explained, opening his inventory to craft the rest into planks, tossing them onto the floor. "And here are some wood planks."
Argenti had moved down to the floor, picking up the oak logs. Fugue and Asta picked up the planks.
"Stelle probably told you that you're building a hub. But, we'll start with a house first. When we get more people, we can start increasing the size."
Fugue looked at the blocks in her hands, her ears twitching slightly. "So, how exactly do you want us to 'build?'"
"Just place them down," Arcum replied. "This world barely has any physics. Just be careful of sand and gravel, because those have physics still."
He saw the slightly confused look on most of their faces, but he didn't elaborate. It wasn't important at the moment, anyway.
He pushed past the group and went to the crafting table, using the spare sticks and cobblestone he still had to create more tools.
He threw them behind his back, stacking them all into a pile.
"There's some tools for you to use."
He turned back around to face them. "Do we understand now?"
Fugue and Asta nodded hesitantly, while Stelle gave a large thumbs up. Argenti gave a firm nod.
"We shall build the most beautiful house, for Idrila!"
"Okay, have fun," Arcum murmured, moving into the distance to go exploring for more ores. "You can all be put to work while I prepare useful things."
A cave would be useful. Setting up a hub near a cave would be annoying, which was exactly why there weren't any caves in the nearby vicinity.
"..."
Arcum closed the chat. It wasn't his fault that apparently, he didn't get another username like everyone else—he was stuck with the user he put when he was younger.
He continued on his journey, walking a decent bit away from where the hub was currently being setup.
"Oh, neat."
Arcum soon wandered around a small hill, a cave running into the side of it. Coal ore was visible from the surface, and the light from the sun didn't reach into the depths.
Running into the cave, he pulled his pickaxe out and started mining the coal ore.
"I'll mark these coordinates down, and I can return with the group later," Arcum spoke aloud as he mined the coal. "We can get torches now, survive the first night, finish the house, and then get ores."
Arcum opened up the chat, typing out a message in chat, pausing before he sends the message.
"... would private messages work?"
He erased his message, typing out a message.
'/w Trash_Racoon31 how is it going?'
He pressed the send button.
Message not sent: You can only send direct messages to players within 1,000 blocks.
"What a pain."
But, that was good information to have. He could use this to figure out how far someone is from him, so long as he has their username.
The coal vein soon ended, and he stepped out of the large hole he had dug following it.
"I should check their progress."
Following his footsteps, Arcum made his way back to where the hub was being built.
When he got into eyeshot, Arcum spotted a large wall of stone bricks. It wasn't much, but it was something.
"I think you're building it too high," a voice rang out from the group.
Asta was pointing out instructions to Stelle, who was on the top of the wall. "But we're going to build a hub! So it needs to be large!"
"I thought our benefactor said it was going to be a house," Fugue said.
"My friends!" Argenti shouted. "These poppies are beautiful!"
"We have two competent people and two dunderheads."
"Wall is too large," Arcum said he got closer to the group. "It's a house, not a mansion. Break it down until it's 5 blocks tall, at most."
Arcum watched for a little bit as Stelle slowly broke the stone bricks she had placed.
He glanced towards Fugue and Asta.
"Do you two know how to build?"
They both shook their head. Asta spoke. "We know how to put them down, but we were planning on making a design beforehand."
"Okay," Arcum replied simply, turning his attention to Argenti. "And he's..?"
"He's been gathering flowers," Fugue responded. "He has poppies, cornflowers, and dandelions so far."
"The beauty is in everything, and we shall make this the most beautiful building!"
"I'm going to ignore him," Arcum said as he approaching the crafting table. "Do either of you have some wooden planks I can use. I need 16."
Fugue walked to Arcum and held out some planks as Asta went to monitor Stelle's breaking of the stone bricks.
"What do you need them for?"
"I'm making a chest," Arcum said, taking the blocks and putting them around the 3x3 crafting grid, ignoring the center.
A chest was made, and another one soon after. "We'll store some stuff in here."
He moved to the side, placing the chest on the floor, creating a large chest. "Put the things that you don't want to hold in your inventory in here."
"I shall put all the flowers in there!" Argenti said after hearing Arcum's explanation, dashing towards the chest.
"No!" Arcum immediately said. "You keep those flowers in your inventory. I'm making another chest for your flowers."
"How are you making these?" Fugue asked, looking over Arcum's shoulder to the crafting table. "Wouldn't it be easier if there were multiple people creating things?"
"It is," Arcum said. "But recipes are annoying to teach."
"How do you know of these?"
"This world is similar to a game I used to play," Arcum explained. "And it seems the knowledge from that game is the same here. Thinking about what happened won't change anything, though."
Fugue nodded. "So, you made a chest, correct? You need wooden planks to make them, and you made two. So it's 8 per chest, correct?"
Arcum nodded. "8 wooden planks per chest. It can be any wooden plank, and to make wooden planks, you need logs."
Fugue moved towards the crafting table, placing a singular oak log onto the grid.
After a moment, the oak log disappeared, and 4 planks were sitting on the table.
"I see," she murmured. "So it's 1 log for 4 planks, and 8 planks for one chest, so two logs for a chest."
"You can make a lot of things with wooden planks," Arcum revealed. "So if you put wooden planks around in a random arrangement, maybe you'll find some recipes to make."
"It would be nice to have something to write in. I could make a recipe book to share with the others."
"Good call," Arcum said. "I can go do that really quickly."
Without waiting for a reply, Arcum moved away in the opposite direction of where the cave was, where more plains were.
Moving further into the plains, it was easier to see around him. Looking around for a bit, he soon found what he was looking for.
"Sugar cane," he said in an exasperated voice, spotting a river with some sugar cane growing on the sand. "And squids should spawn in there, too."
Arcum ran over to the river, picking up the sugar cane. There were 4 pieces of sugar cane, which was the perfect amount. One to plant, the others to make paper.
"Now," he said, looking into the river. "I don't want to get wet."
Arcum turned heel and decided to look for cows and chickens instead. He needed a feather from a chicken, and leather from the cow.
Food would be useful, too—they couldn't starve on their first day.
"Speaking of day," Arcum said looking up into the sky. "It might be night soon."
True to his though process, the sun that was high in the sky was setting, nearing the horizon. It wasn't sunset yet, but it was nearing sunset.
"Better hurry," he urged himself, looking around the plains for any passive mob spawns. "Give me any animal."
Blurb.
A sound came from the river. Turning around, Arcum saw... not a squid.
"... that's not a squid. Nor a fish."
Inside the river, was a young lady. She had long straight black hair, with light blue and indigo eyes, with shell-like and coral-like head accessories.
"Welp," Arcum said. "Who're you?"
The lady came up from the river, coming up onto land and standing up. "Call me Hysilens."
"... are you good at fishing, Miss?"
She nodded.
"Are you... alone or with people?"
"It seems I got separated with my allies just a day ago," she explained. "This place looks different from where I am from. It's cubic here."
"Yeah," Arcum agreed, looking at the blocks around. "No crap. Well, if you're alone, why don't you join me? I have a group just a bit away, I'm just here looking for a squid."
"A squid?" She questioned. "Do you mean those cube-looking organisms in the river?"
"Yes."
"I could get one for you," Hysilens said. "Are you going to eat it?"
Arcum tilted his head. "Maybe. Just get an ink sac from it before you try to eat it."
Hysilens nodded and dove back into the water. Interestingly, she wasn't suspicious of him.
She was in a new environment, after all. It would be weird to trust the first person, unless...
"She probably doesn't even see me as a threat."
Taking this time, Arcum walked back up to the plains behind him, giving another look for any passive mob.
Just a bit later, he spotted a chicken, next to a group of sheep and a singular cow.
"Jackpot."
Arcum ran at the animals, taking out his stone sword and killed each mob, the body of the mob not despawning.
"That's strange, they don't despawn."
Shrugging, Arcum placed them into his inventory. Surprisingly, the entire body of each animal went into his inventory, the bodies of the sheep stacking.
"... I'll think more about this later," he promised himself as he went back to the riverside.
The water surface broke again as Hysilens emerged from the river.
"Here," she said, tossing the ink sac at Arcum as she dragged the squid out of the water. "Are you going to your group now?"
"Yeah," he replied, watching the sun slowly set. "We should get there fast."