Arcum led Hysilens towards the base as the sun slowly set over the horizon. The light on the ground started to recede, and shadows slowly overtook the world.
The moon started to rise in the east, blocky, just like the rest of the world.
"You know you have an inventory, right?" Arcum commented, watching Hysilens drag the squid across the floor like a ragdoll. "I'm pretty sure everyone knows how to."
She shook her head. "I forgot about it."
"Well, no need to do it now, I guess. We're already here."
Arcum spots the base, just a small distance away.
"I'm going to run there," he announced, before sprinting towards the base. "Catch up or—"
Hysilens slid through the grass as if she were ice skating, moving past Arcum in a flash and arriving at the camp. The squid was dragged behind her, the poor bastard.
"...ok, never mind."
"It's so dark!" Stelle cried out. "Where's light when you need it?!"
Hysilens perked up at the sound of Stelle. "Is that Little Gray Fry?"
"No way Stelle also knows this mermaid."
Arcum managed to make his way into the main part of the base, where all the workbenches were placed down. The squid was gone, and Hysilens probably put it in her inventory.
Stelle seemed to be hitting it off with Hysilens instantly, but he would ask them about that later. It was night, and he hadn't even crafted torches yet.
"Did Sourdough find you?" Stelle said, which Arcum's ears picked up.
"... Sourdough?" Arcum asked, his head turning towards Stelle. "Why... Sourdough?"
"That's your name in the chat, so I'm going to call you that."
"Oh, right," Arcum thought. "I suppose I didn't tell them anything about me. I was originally planning to leave Stelle until I learned she had connections."
"... just call me Arcum."
"I'm still calling you Sourdough."
Arcum waved his hand, approaching the crafting table. "Do as you please."
"Anyways, Hysilens, why did you follow Sourdough? I thought you were more careful than that."
"I was planning on following him to his base," Hysilens said. "I was planning on killing him and taking his loot before moving to find the others. But since you're here, plans have changed."
"Wait, that's scary," Arcum commented, his face turned with a grimace. "Tell me before you plan to kill me, I need to write a will."
He opened his inventory, searching for wood to make sticks for torches. It was already decently dark, if mobs spawned near the camp, it would be annoying.
His gaze swept through all the slots of his inventory.
"... I'm out of wood."
Arcum looked around. He saw Argenti, putting flowers in the double chest—the one he specifically said to not. It was Arcum's fault though, not having made another chest for Argenti to place his flowers.
"I'm really behind on everything. This is what I get for partnering with people who don't know how to survive..."
Asta was near the not-so-built house, examining the blocks around the house and the size of the house, probably making a design inside her mind.
Fugue was...
"I figured out some recipes."
Fugue appeared, popping up behind Arcum, making him jolt a little.
"Oh. Do you have sticks then?"
Fugue nodded.
"I need sticks. Please."
Fugue opened her inventory, grabbing sticks and handing over a dozen. "Why do you need sticks?"
"Light."
Arcum placed the sticks in the crafting table, placing the coal he mined previously in the slot above the sticks.
Torches appeared in the crafting bench, and Arcum took it without hesitation. The light lit up the surrounding blocks, making all of those at the base turn to look.
"Alright everyone," Arcum announced. "We have 48 torches. And we have 6 people here, so everyone gets 8 torches. Place down 7 around the area, and keep the last one on you."
Arcum handed torches over to Fugue, before walking over to each person individually.
"So we just need to place these?" Asta asked, looking at the torches in her hand. "If we just needed light, we could have focused them all in a singular area for more vision."
Arcum shook his head. "We're trying to stop THEM from spawning."
"Them?"
"Yeah. Zombies, skeletons, creepers... ugh, crazy bastards. Spiders, plenty of things, really."
Arcum looked around, watching as they all placed down torches. There were some dark spots that they missed, but he made sure to mark them down with his own torches.
The camp was soon surrounded by a decent amount of torches.
"Now that we've lit up camp, I think it's time to make those books. And deal with these weird stacked corpses."
"Hey, Sourdough!" Stelle called out.
"Just call me Arcum," he called back, opening his inventory and selecting the corpses of the animals. "What do you want anyway?"
"What's this green thing?"
"What?"
Arcum's head practically snapped as he turned to look at where Stelle's voice was coming from.
A creeper was walking towards her, and she was walking towards it.
"Why are you approaching the thing you don't know?" Arcum said, his voice getting progressively louder. "Why don't you keep your distance if it's approaching?"
"I can't beat the crap out of it without getting closer."
Stelle took one more step closer, and the creeper stopped moving. It started to pulse, it's body expanding and contracting, getting ready to explode.
"I think it has stomach problems," Stelle called out, turning away to look back at Arcum.
"Ay, stupid!" Arcum yelled. "That thing explodes!"
At the word 'explode', Stelle's face immediately changed from goofy to serious, turning her head back to look at the creeper.
"Aw man."
From the side, a spear was launched at the creeper's head, sending it flying to the side. It fell to it's side, and it stopped exploding for now, giving Stelle time to back up.
Arcum looked to where the spear came from, Argenti standing there.
"A personal weapon," Arcum commented. "Great. I don't have one, but I suppose a knight should have one."
The creeper got back up, the spear still lodged in its head.
"Alright, stand back," Arcum said, pulling out his sword and moving towards the creeper. "You want to hit it and back up, and repeat."
To teach them, Arcum walked up to the creeper. It started to explode again, before Arcum hit it back, the creeper halting its explosion.
"Like that—"
Suddenly, the creeper sprinted at Arcum.
"What the—"
It started flashing white, preparing to explode.
Thinking fast, Arcum swapped to his cobblestone, placing a block down at his feet. The creeper exploded, a crater where it exploded, taking out the cobblestone Arcum placed as well.
The spear went flying into a different direction, the tip of the spear getting itself stuck in the ground nearby. Arcum was sent to the floor with the explosion, hitting the floor hard.
"That's new. And terrifying, what the hell."
"You were saying?" Stelle said, walking over and offering a hand to Arcum. "Hit it and walk back, repeat?"
Arcum shook his head. "Yeah, don't listen to me, something different."
Sounds are heard approaching the base. The rattle of bones, trudging slow footsteps, fast skittering legs, and silent footsteps masked underneath the sounds.
"Aha," Arcum announced. "We're getting raided. Anyone know how to fight?"
Argenti, Stelle, and Hysilens raised their hands.
"I suppose that sort of makes sense," Arcum thought, looking at the outfits of all of the people currently.
"Indeed!" Argenti called out. "We shall protect this encampment, for Idrila!"
The mobs soon entered the light of the torches placed around. Multiple zombies led the charge, with spiders in between their bodies. Creepers flanked the zombies, and following the creepers were skeletons, some of them on spiders.
"That's definitely not normal," Arcum muttered under his breath. "They spawn randomly... and they definitely don't go into a war formation, what is that?!"
Stelle took out a bat. Argenti readied his spear, and Hysilens drew two swords of what seemed to be made of seashells.
Arcum pulled out his stone sword, which paled in comparison to what the rest of their weapons looked like.
This was Minecraft, but it also wasn't following the traditional Minecraft rules. That means his knowledge was limited.
Arcum didn't have much time to think, when the mobs suddenly charged. Arrows flew through the sky from the skeletons.
He placed down blocks in front of him, unable to pay attention to the others when his life was on the line. "Whoever can't fight should run and hide somewhere! If you have nowhere, dig three blocks down and place a block above you!"
The sound of arrows whizzing through the air halt as it hits his blocks. Arcum peeked out to take a glance at the army.
Zombies were sprinting towards him. Some other zombies and creepers were sprinting in the direction of where the others were last seen.
"Oh they SPRINT now. Wonderful!"
Arcum swung his sword at the first zombie that closed in. It cut through its torso, making it stagger backwards.
Another zombie lunged at Arcum from the right. He jumped backwards out of the way, watching it crash into a creeper that was to the left of him.
In the background, vines erupted from the floor, Argenti's spear pierced into the ground as the vines ensnared some mobs in front of him.
Stelle's bat sent mobs flying around, some mobs slamming into the zombies and spiders in Arcum's crowd, dwindling his numbers slightly.
Hysilens cut through the spiders that leapt at her with ease, her fluid grace on the battlefield, controlling the area near her with ease.
"Creeper, creeper, creeper," Arcum chanted, dashing towards a creeper. "Explode for me, will you?"
The creeper started to flash, an explosion imminent. Arcum stayed near the creeper, before placing a block at his feet at the last second.
BOOM!
The creeper exploded, sending spiders, zombies, and some skeletons flying into the air and dying to fall damage. Others died immediately from the explosion, their corpses flying through the air, rag dolling everywhere.
"Why don't they despawn? This is so much cleaning in the day..."
Arcum complained, but moved towards the skeletons in the back.
"Hup!"
He swung his sword at the ribcage of the skeleton, but his eyes widen.
The skeleton had leapt out of the way, diving to it's side. It's bowstring was drawn back, an arrow notched in before it let loose, the arrowhead piercing Arcum's shoulder.
"Tch!"
He quickly placed some blocks in front of himself, looking at his left shoulder, where the arrow hit him. He put his hand on the arrow, before yanking it out, blood dripping from the arrowhead.
"That hurt. And skeletons don't do that."
Arcum ran out from his cover, making his body smaller as he dashed towards the skeletons. When they fired their arrows, he would quickly place cobblestone in front of him, before moving again.
"Batter up!"
A zombie corpse flew through the air, courtesy of Stelle hitting one with her bat a little too hard, slamming into one the skeletons, toppling them all down to the floor.
Seizing the chance, Arcum dashed forward, his sword piercing the skull of the downed skeletons.
BOOM!
"Oops."
Arcum's shoulders dropped, turning to look at where the explosion came from.
Stelle stood there, a creeper hole in the floor. She stood next to the singular wall of the unbuilt house, a hole now in the stone wall.
"Why are you fighting near there?!"
"Hey!" Stelle retorted. "It's good cover!"
"Terrible, terrible," Arcum muttered to himself, looking at the distance. "This is not ideal."
More mobs marched towards the camp. The moon was still high in the sky, no sign of the night ending soon.
"You're fixing that in the morning, by the way."
"I was already building the house," Stelle said. "It's just easier to put a floor in now."
"Actually," Arcum thought. "Hold them off for a little. I'm going to try something."
He ran towards the center of the base, looking around for any sign of Fugue or Asta. They had logs, and he needed logs.
"Asta or Fugue, where are you? Come out, I need something!"
A block was heard breaking from behind him, and Asta's voice popped out. "What do you need?"
"Three oak logs and three sticks."
The items were thrown up from the hole, before it was promptly covered back up by Arcum. He ran towards the crafting bench, taking a piece of coal from the furnace.
He placed the coal in the center of the crafting table, three logs on the bottom slots, and three sticks surrounding the coal.
A campfire was made.
Arcum dashed towards the center of the base and placed the campfire down. The smoke from the fire slowly rose up into the sky.
"Now let's see if anyone comes to help."
He readied his sword and ran to help the others. This was going to be a long night.