"So why did you decide to split up, hm?" Arcum questioned as he deflected a swing from the leader with his stone sword. "It would've been smarter to just stick together to attack us."
The raiders decided to split, each one running to face Arcum, Mydei, and Stelle alone.
"Those idiots decide to run off themselves," he responded with a snarl, jumping back to pull out an iron axe instead. "One dug up, the other followed you."
"I can see that, seeing one is stuck under zombies and the other is on the floor."
In response to the axe, Arcum equipped his bow, notching his makeshift arrow-spear on the bowstring, pulling it back.
The leader, in response to this attack, raised his shield and held it up, waiting for Arcum to fire.
"You have to push me," Arcum said with a hint of superiority. "If you just wait around, my teammates are for sure to take yours out first."
"You're so certain?" The leader responded with a sharp tone. "They have no armor. We have all the loot."
"You're also a Minecraft player, so you must see other people play," Arcum cooly responded, his bow still drawn onto the leader. His arm had started shaking from keeping the bow drawn for an extended period of time. "I've seen players beat others to death with their fists and strength 2."
As if on cue, a yelp of pain sounded through the plains.
The leader turned to look, his shield falling as he got distracted by the sight.
Sparing no time, Arcum let loose the spear-arrow he had drawn back, the makeshift projectile cutting through the air and embedding itself in the shield-arm of the leader.
"Argh!"
The leader looked down to the spearhead that was lodged into his arm, cursing under his breath and reaching to pull it out.
Against his own good judgement, Arcum tore his eyes away from his opponent, looking to who or what had yelped in pain just a few moments prior.
One of the players in full iron had been laid out on the floor, their form curled into a small ball as Stelle continuously slammed her bat over and over into him.
"Ay, Ay!" Arcum shouted out her bashing. "Just knock him out or bind him! We need that iron armor to have durability!"
However, Arcum had no time to ensure that Stelle had heard what he said. The leader had already recovered, taking advantage of Arcum's distracted state to close the distance, where his superior tools could give an edge.
Arcum swapped from his bow to his axe, holding up his shield again. Blocking the blade of the leader's sword, Arcum retaliated immediately with a downward swing from his axe.
Eyes widening, the leader raised his shield. The axe cut through his shield and disabled it for a few seconds.
Arcum quickly kicked his legs out, dropping him to his knees, where Arcum quickly bashed his head with the shield.
"You forget this isn't Minecraft," Arcum stated as he looked down at his opponent. "This is our life now, and your fighting skills in a game don't constitute real life skills. You should have taken martial arts."
The leader opened his mouth to respond with a retort, sitting up. His attempt was silenced by Arcum, swinging his shield into the head of the leader with all his might, knocking the man out.
Sighing, Arcum looked over to his allies. It seemed that they both finished their battles, much faster than he did. Their opponents were piled together, unconscious on the floor.
"Welp. At least they finished. That was faster and easier than expected."
Arcum grabbed his unconscious opponent's ankle, dragging him head-first across the grass. He tossed him into the pile with the other goons that decided to attack the trio.
"Can someone go grab the one I dumped under zombies in the cave?" Arcum asked as he walked towards the unconscious raider that Mydei had knocked out in the beginning, dragging him into the pile too. "It shouldn't be too far down. Just follow the path and he's underneath a pile of zombies."
Arcum watched as Mydei went down into the caves to retrieve the last unconscious raider.
"Stelle, you watch them and make sure they don't escape," Arcum ordered. "I'm going to see if I can make any bindings."
"Fine, fine," Stelle responded. "You give me so much work… Do I get a vacation?"
"This is the second day. You've only been here for two days, and you're asking for vacation."
"I have paid leave, you know!"
Arcum ignored her last words, placing down a crafting table and searching his inventory to see what he could craft.
"Something that can be used as bindings… bindings… a… could I use a lead?"
He didn't have a slimeball, but he remembered that Minecraft had changed the crafting recipe. Now, all he needed was some leather and string.
"Good thing I collected extra string from cobwebs," Arcum murmured as he saw the spare string in his inventory. "I just need to find a cow…"
Since Arcum was waiting for Mydei anyways, he scavenged the plains, looking around for a cow.
"Are there no cows? Fine," Arcum said, his eyes landing on some horses. "Guess I'll get some from an alternate source."
Arcum soon skipped back to the crafting table, leather now obtained.
"Into the crafting table you go!" He called out cheerfully, tossing them into the crafting table and arranging them to craft a lead.
Nothing happened.
"... did I forget the recipe?"
Arcum rearranged the recipe, nothing worked. He put leather in the center, then on the edges.
"No way I forgot how to make leads. Was string the only material needed?"
Arcum placed one more string in place of where the leather was originally. 3 pieces of string in the top right, top center, and middle left, 1 string in the center, and 1 string on the bottom right. As soon as Arcum placed the string…
POP!
Leads were made, laying on the crafting table.
"... I hate this."
Taking the newly crafted leads from the crafting table, Arcum tied them together and knotted it to make a larger rope.
"I'm back," Mydei's voice called out as Arcum finished tying the knot. "I'll throw him with the others."
Arcum looked behind his back, watching Mydei toss the last unconscious raider into the pile, patting his hands down.
"Let me tie them up," Arcum said, holding the large lead up. "Then, we can go ahead and make them drop all their inventory items, then interrogate them back at base."
"If they don't drop their items?" Stelle asked, prodding one of their cheeks with the end of her bat. "What then?"
"Waterboard them?" Arcum offered with a shrug. "I don't know, we'll figure it out."
Snaring the group with the lead, Arcum tied it altogether, tying them all up as a group. "Wake them up… with a water bucket."
Arcum walked himself down to the river shore, using the bucket he had crafted earlier in the cave to scoop up some water.
Taking it all the way back to the unconscious raiders, he dumped the entire bucket on their heads. "Rise and shine, sleeping beauties!"
They all sputtered awake, their heads darting around, high on alert.
"Perfect!" Arcum clapped his hands together, a smile of both delight and manic fixation on his face. "I'm naming you all Goon 1 through 5."
"Goon 1," Arcum said, pointing to the leader. "Drop your stuff if you want to live. We WILL kill you if you don't."
"... and if I don't drop my stuff?" Goon 1 replied, his head held high. "You can't get it from us if you don't."
"We can just kill you and take your stuff then," Arcum replied. "This is our life now, so if you want to risk testing if respawning really works here, be my guest."
"Or we could torture you," Stelle said with a thumbs up.
"No, no," Arcum replied. "We don't say that word. It's advanced interrogation techniques."
Stelle nodded her head, and looked back towards the Goons.
"..."
Goon 1 let out a sigh.
"Drop your stuff, boys."
"I'm glad you're all so cooperative!" Arcum commented, watching as all their loot ended up on the floor. "Very good, very good! Stelle, Mydei, let's pick these up."
The trio picked up the armor, tools, and loot that the raiders dropped, leaving only the unnecessary items that they could not carry.
"Listen up," Arcum commanded. "I'm interrogating you, so if you want to live, tell us what we want to know."
Arcum pointed to Goon 5.
"Tell me, Goon 5, where are your base coordinates?"
"I don't have that copied," Goon 5 replied, nodding his head over to Goon 1. "He has it."
Arcum looked at Goon 1. "Tell me."
"Are you planning to raid the base?" Goon 1 questioned, before laughing. "It's no use. Our base has two of the strongest players."
"Oh really?" Arcum asked. "And if they're so powerful, why didn't they come to help you raid others?"
"They're weak minded," Goon 1 replied. "They wish to see how this world plays out, they don't even know what Minecraft is."
"So they don't know you did this?"
"They don't," Goon 1 confirmed. "They would never let us, anyways. But we players know better, so we can do whatever we want."
Goon 2 spoke up.
"They have another mechanic that we players don't have. They have abilities, like adding a mod to vanilla."
Arcum raised his eyebrow, looking over to Stelle and Mydei. "Do you think it's someone you guys know?"
"Maybe," Stelle replied. "But that's not enough information. It could just be someone that we don't know who also has powers."
"Then what can they do?" Arcum asked, turning his attention back to Goon 2. "Remember, we're in charge of whether you all live or not."
"I know, I know," Goon 2 replied. "I'll tell you."
Goon 2 had daggered glared into the back of his head as Goon 1 stared at him.
"One can heal injuries very easily and simultaneously," Goon 2 explained. "We go to her if we get injured by those crazy mobs. Our leader has this huge, huge, yellow humanoid with a large polearm."
Stelle let out a gasp.
"I think I know one of them," she said. "I think it's…"
Arcum looked over to Stelle. "It's..?"
"Our general, our glorious king, Kingyuan!"
"... Kingyuan?"
"Yes, yes!" Stelle responded eagerly, as if she was trying to cement something in Arcum's head before he could question it. "His name is Kingyuan."
"... okay. And the other?"
"I can't be certain," Stelle replied. "I have a lot of friends who can heal, but there are also plenty others in the galaxy who CAN heal, too."
"Are they friends?"
"Well," Stelle responded. "I would say so. Besides, these goons said they did this without their knowledge, so if they had to do that, chances are they didn't get permission in the first place."
"We'll let you five go if you take us to your base," Arcum offered, looking back at the tied up raiders. "We'll ensure your safety and won't kill you if you do."
The five raiders looked at each other, before nodding simultaneously.
Arcum nodded again, waiving his hand to Mydei. "Let's drag them back to the base then. I can build a holding cell. We can get someone to watch them as we prepare to make the journey, although I think night will be a good deterrent."
The trio led the bound group of raiders to the base, trekking the 1,000+ blocks back.
The base was in sight again, but it looked much better this time. It was a wooden house, outlined with stone brick blocks. It had oak doors, stairs for a roof… It was beautiful for a starter base.
"Although there aren't any windows… there are just random 1x1 holes in the wall for vision…"
Arcum's eyes widened, as he spotted a small field of wheat seeds growing next to a small pool of water by the base. "Oh, and they even learned to farm? I'm so touched…"
Pulling out some cobblestone, Arcum quickly built a small cobblestone box for the raiders to sit in as they prepared for the journey, the sun starting to set.
"You stay safe in that box," Arcum said. "If you try to get out, I'm sure you'll get killed by the mobs while you have no loot."
With a short wave, Arcum and the group left the raiders in the cobblestone box, making their way to the now-built house.
"Oh, you're back."
Hysilens stepped out of the house, a fish held in her hand as she walked over to the group. "Asta and Argenti finished building the house, and Fugue made different items to decorate the house. She even made that farm over there."
"Are there more chests?" Arcum asked.
Hysilens nodded, pointing inside the house. "Inside the house. It's large, and everyone else is currently inside."
Arcum and the trio walked inside the house. There were chests in the corner, with crafting tables and furnaces in another corner.
Separate, small rooms were made, all furnished, but without beds.
"I guess I didn't tell them how to make beds."
"You can toss the loot inside the chests," Arcum said, pointing at the chest corner, tossing his stuff on the floor too. "If you're going over, please put my stuff inside too, I need to check progress."
"Yes, yes, child labor…" Stelle whined, but nonetheless took the stuff to put inside the chest alongside Mydei.
Arcum peered inside each of the rooms, looking for Fugue or Asta inside one of them.
In the second room that he peered into, Fugue was sitting on a wooden staircase refurnished as a chair.
As Arcum peeked in, Fugue looked up from her book and quill. "Oh, you all are back. How did it go?"
"We got some good loot and information," Arcum said. "We're going to another base tomorrow, apparently Stelle knows the leader, Kingyuan."
"Kingyuan?" Fugue questioned. "Do you mean General Jing Yuan?"
"It's Jing Yuan, not Kingyuan?" Arcum asked.
"I knew it sounded wrong!"
"He's the Xianzhou Luofu's general," Fugue nodded. "I would know."
"... I see."
"I'm so… so… going to kill Stelle someday."