As I was sitting down to recover I looked around the room more closely, it was built with sandstone that had hieroglyphics telling a story of a forgotten time, a time of prosperity and peace, but suddenly a black portal appeared that started to consume the world. I tried to read the rest of the story, but I couldn't do that since the last few blocks were either missing or the drawing was destroyed.

"That was interesting to see, even though that world looked much more different than now, maybe the world became like this after the black portal appeared. But what happened at the end? Did the portal win, or did the inhabitants manage to defend their home? "

I didn't stay too much on that question since there was nobody in here that could answer it. So I decided to look in the 3 chests on this floor hoping to find something useful.

The first chest contained some bones, which of course I took since I could use them to make more bone meal, very useful for my crops. The second chest had some iron ingots and strings, which could be used to make weapons and tools and help me get to the next level. The third chest was something more special, it had some gold ingots and emeralds, which I could use to trade with villagers for useful items when I hopefully find them.

I felt satisfied with those findings, but from what I remembered, there weren't supposed to be chests on the entrance floor, but it still was the marked terocata on the floor. Fortunately, I remembered that there was a TNT trap, so I proceeded with caution, making sure to avoid any pressure plates on the floor. I took my pickaxe out and slowly made my way to the secret floor. Once I finished my staircase I found the hidden treasure. I started to open the chests, and realized that this was the true treasure of the temple, I found some gunpowder, iron, gold, emeralds, and even more unique items such as a saddle and an iron horse armor. But the biggest prize in all of this was a glowing golden apple.

"Is that... is that an enchanted golden apple?! One of the most overpowered items In the game? "

I was excited about such an item, once I ate it I could be invincible for a few minutes and even gain extra health, I don't know how it would work but I would only use it in extreme emergency cases.

Once I was done with the chest I decided to take the TNT from the trap as well, in case it was needed for my own trap. But under all that TNT there was a layer of brick stone.

"A secret room after a secret room? Why so many secrets? "

I carefully checked the surroundings of the new room in case it had any traps but found nothing dangerous, so I decided to break into the room, it was a small empty room with one exception. A map hung on the wall, I looked closer but I didn't recognize the place, but it did show me something that I recognized and gave me hope. On the map I could see a desert temple and a bit further there was a village.

"This is the map of the desert I'm in right now, and it even shows the surrounding biomes! "

But the most amazing information about this map is that it showed another village besides the desert one.

"Now the question is how am I going to get there, since it doesn't have a white dot that represents me and where I'm going. "

After some more thinking, I decided to take the map with me and see if I could work with the cartography table to find out more.

I checked around in case there was a third secret room, but there was none.

I then carefully made my way back out of the temple and onto the desert sands. The sun was at its highest point in the sky, so I decided to go directly to my base, but I had to be quick to arrive before nightfall.

Unfortunately, the journey took longer than I expected, even with the compass that helped me to not get lost the night managed to catch me, but I was very close to my base since I started to recognize some places. As I was walking, I heard the eerie sounds of monsters starting to appear, I didn't see the process, but I heard them. I picked up my pace, trying to get to my home as quickly as possible.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

But my efforts were in vain as I was suddenly ambushed by a group of zombies and skeletons. I drew my sword and fought them off as best I could, but their numbers started to overwhelm me. I knew I had to retreat and find higher ground to fend them off.

I spotted a nearby hill and sprinted towards it, with the undead horde hot on my heels. Just as I reached the top, I heard a strange hissing noise that I had never heard before. I turned around and saw a strange creature with four legs and a green body, staring at me with beady eyes.

It was a creeper, and before I could react, it exploded with a loud bang, throwing me off the hill and dealing me significant damage. I quickly ate the normal golden apple to regain some of my health and looked around to see if there were any more monsters nearby.

Fortunately, the explosion had taken out most of the zombies and skeletons that had been chasing me, and the remaining ones were easy enough to defeat. I breathed a sigh of relief and continued on my way home, keeping an eye out for any more creepers

I soon arrived at my base wall which brought me immense happiness to see it, I quickly got in and went straight into my house. I was gasping for air from all the running and fighting.

"Well, I met my first creeper in this world and did not enjoy it. Who would've thought that a suicide bomber is not friendly enough to have some small talk?"

I checked my status to see that my health was 13/20 even after the healing from the golden apple, if I had another accident with a creeper I most likely had to use my new enchanted apple.

I was exhausted and wounded from the battle, so I decided to rest and recover before doing anything else. I went to my chest to grab some food and went to sleep in.

The next morning I woke up refreshed and in full health, I went downstairs and looked in my chest and realized that even with the recent loot that I got from the expedition, I was running low on basic supplies.

"I need to restock I guess."

So I took out my axe and went to chop some wood, and while I was outside I decided to check out the animals as well. The small cow looked like it was growing up with no problems, so I gave the whole family some wheat as a treat, but they didn't start kissing so I'm guessing that they weren't ready for another member in their family. The sheep was still alone so it just enjoyed the wheat in peace, but the chickens on the other hand weren't so calm, once they were fed some seeds, they started the process of making a baby which was very weird to watch, but the results were still the same.

While I collected the eggs from the ground I remembered the map that I had found in the desert temple and decided to use it to locate the next village. I took the map and headed to my crafting table to make a cartography workbench, hoping to mark the location of the village on my map.

As I looked at the map, I realized that I needed to add an empty map to the cartography table to make a copy of it. I went to my chest and searched for some papers but didn't find any, fortunately, the sugar cane grew a little while I was away, and combined with the ones that I found on my expedition I managed to craft an empty map.

But when I looked at the empty map I realized that I made a mistake, since I took it out of the Inventory the map started to complete itself. It wasn't completed but I still could see how my house looked from above.

"Well great, now I have to make a new empty map! Actually, I can just expand the existing map and I'll explore what's empty to know where I have to go towards the village."

And with the cartography table, it was much cheaper. Once I was done and took out the map, a white dot suddenly appeared on the map.

"I can see where I'm on the map now. that's very convenient but why does it look so different from the other map?"

As I looked closer I started to see what was the problem. The map from the temple was an old map, and it didn't update when I made it bigger, and ever since I came to this place I chopped a lot of trees and built my base. And the new map has my house on it since it was recently made.

"Now I just need to gather some supplies and head over there."

I went to my chest and grabbed some food, weapons, and tools to take with me. I also took some of the gold and emeralds I found in the desert temple, hoping to trade with the villagers for more supplies.

While I was collecting the items I started to think of what to do when I got there, could I communicate with them? Are they even smart enough to hold a conversation? How would the trading go? Would they look like in the game or closer to me? Would they even accept me or think I'm a danger?

So many questions, but that did not discourage me from continuing, this was my first interaction with a civilization of this world and I did not want to mess it up.

With everything I needed, I set out towards the village, excited to explore again with the hope that I'd meet some people at the end of it.