Chapter 137: Thank the Polynesia charm

Having finished ‘the’ task for the day, I feel lost. Having seen Cassie only recently, I should leave her to do her work for a while. My thoughts then turn to Jengle, but I quickly realized I will see him in two days.

As much as he is fun to be around, I will be around him a lot soon. So… What do I do? I don’t feel like painting, fishing, or anything like that. “bored.” I say in an exaggerated stretch; while aimlessly walking.

“What to do…?” I ponder while walking. “I need a mod to occupy my time.”

Heading home, I visit Chic. “Hey, Chic, got any ideas on what we should do. I am bored.”

“Explore.”

“Is that it?”

“Bored.” Chic helpfully adds.

“Fine, we will explore… something,” I say with a shrug. “I know you can speak in full sentences; why don’t you?”

And Chic just averts her gaze, shrugging.

“Fine, keep your secrets.”

I then sit down and consider where we should explore.

Admittedly, I have neglected to visit the true End. “Chic, how do you feel about visiting the End?”

The spider shrugs and then nods. Which brings a smile to my face at how silly it looked.

Tossing the size charm towards Chic. “Become pocket-sized; we are visiting the End.”

With haste, Chic turns to the size of a tarantula. Scooping them up, I slip them into a crook in my chest plate. Got to love decorative armor, lots of places to stash spiders.

Teleporting to the End portal, I accidentally startle the guard. In his defense, he got into a defense position quickly.

“Wh…Who are you.” He says, getting it right on the second attempt.

“Chill, it is me, Aeternum. Just entering the End, I am allowed.”

“Wait… Wait for me to tell the House.”

“The cart takes an hour; I can’t wait that long.” Waving him goodbye, “sorry for startling you; have a good afternoon.” I say before jumping into the portal.

I hear a startled, “Wait…” Before disappearing into the portal. Stepping onto the Endstone, I look back. Seeing the guard peering through the glassy window.

Stepping away and walking towards the second portal quickly, hoping the Endermen like me. Having grabbed a Polynesia charm just in case. They are monsters; the idea that it will work is sketchy. But it is better than nothing.

Using my teleportation genetic mutation to launch an ender pearl through the portal, landing on the other side with a loud whoosh. Ender Pearls are different from teleportation; you are actually moving. Moving faster than the human body should be able to, which causes the damage.

It is very noisy and painful on the joints. It’s why I don’t often do it. Double-checking Chic, I see they are still sat on my armor.

“Sorry, forgot to check if you would teleport with me.”

Chic just gives me a dirty look.

“Hey, it worked,” I say with a smile.

Another 8 eyed eye roll told me what they thought of that.

“Fine, I will check next time.”

With the spider pacified and my eyes coming into clarity, we take some time to look around. To Chics' sadness, their size means they have a shorter range of vision. It looks familiar, similar to what I remember; a few ores exposed, common Ender plants, and the odd enderman; which inspired me to talk to them.

Walking towards them, they look over me warily. I am careful not to meet its eyes.

“Hello, can you understand me?” I ask them.

Through my peripheral vision, I see them cock their head. Removing the Polynesia charm from my pocket and grasping it in my hand. “Can you hear me now?”

They look down in shock at me.

I ask again, “can you hear me?”

“Yeah yeah, man, I can hear ya. You okay, buddy?”

Blowing out a breath of cool air, “yeah, I am good. Didn’t know if this charm would work.”

“What's that shiny doohickie you got there?”

“Polynesia charm, lets me talk to you.”

“Cool stuff, can I trade for one? Talking sounds fun and stuff.” He says, crouching slightly to match me.

“What you got to trade?”

“How bout a Sparkle apple?” He says with a toothy grin.

“What is a Sparkle apple?”

“This, here take two, friend.” Handing me two apples that look like space. Stars a nebula in a sea of black.

Tossing him a Polynesia charm. “It’s got durability, won’t last forever.”

“No problems, bud, I will find ya when it busts.”

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“How will you find me?” Curiosity piqued.

He looks at me dumbfounded. He does a double take, “How?” He asks sarcastically. “My dude, you’re a dimensional beacon. You got enough energy flowing through you to find ya anywhere.” Said like it was common sense.

“What?”

In an embarrassed tone, “You don’t errm, know?”

“Clearly, not,” I say jokingly.

“Dimension hopping builds a bit of a mark. A bit like a rash gets bigger, redder. Unlike a rash, it doesn’t leave. You leave a dimensional footprint so big, It puts the bigfoot guy to shame.”

“So I am a giant beacon for enderman?”

“Anything with half an eye for the 4th dimension, yeah.”

“Is it a bad thing?”

“Well, it is inevitable. We… Endermen, as you call us, travel a lot. Footprint gets bigger and bigger, ya. Until you die to those damned Shankies. Dimensional bloodhounds I call em.”

“So it is a bad thing?”

“Well, it is a good thing until ya dead.”

“Good to know.”

“So, yea, I can find you.” He says with arm gestures.

“That is terrifying.”

“No worries, we won’t touch a hair on ya head. You beat Big and ugly, or as we used to call her, Queen.” He says like a bad taste in his mouth. Spitting dark saliva across the floor.

“Queen?”

“Black, long, got wings, ya know.”

“The End dragon?”

“Well, yeah. You alright, buddy?” He asks me like I am stupid.

“Yeah, sorry, didn’t know what you meant at first. How is the End handling her death?”

“We don’t call it the End, by the way. You only call it that because you always die here. Not our fault you guys picked a fight Big and Ugly.”

“So… What do you call it?”

“We call it Céu. Or Céu Escuro after she died.”

“I see… I will stick with End for now.”

“Suit ya self, bud.”

“So… How did you guys handle her death?”

“Right, almost forgot. Well, aside from the Chorus wine and partying?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, first… Let’s see.” He starts mumbling unillegably.

“In a way, I can understand.”

“Yeah, okay, well, first, we killed her supporters. Took their pearls and smashed them onto the queens' pillars. I watched them glitter into dust, loved it; a few got different punishments, case by case, ya know. Well, we can now enter and leave this dimension more freely. Not having to pay that greedy dragon dimensionally energy.” He spits once more. “Damned dragon left me in poverty over a lunch run.”

“What is dimensional energy? Your currency?”

“Damned terrens.” He murmurs. “Ya see, us… Endermen, slowly generate it; Ya following? Anyway, we use it to teleport. It is our life; we need it to move, to get food, to scrub the dimensional boundary. We can transfer it and receive it, so we use it as currency. Want something rare like a cookie… You gonna have to fork up 27 charges… The thieving merchant.”

“I see, so it is your money.”

“See, easy.”

“Thank you.”

“No problems, little friend.”

“So… Anything interesting around here for me to see? Thought'd explore.”

It is at this point Chic makes it known she doesn’t know what we are saying.

“Sorry, I will mentally translate for you. This is the conversation so far.” Sending her a condensed stream of the conversation so far.”

The enderman, having thought for a moment, “Blackwood; you gotta see it.”

“Okay, lead the way,” I say, gesturing to the enderman.

He quickly begins to teleport in a random direction. Forcing me to combine my high-speed flight and teleportation to keep up.

I quickly see what he was referring to, as I see alien-like woods in front of me. Woods I use loosely, given the plants don’t do what you expect.

As we get closer, I see the plants instead of leaves; have ethereal tendrils. The tree-like plants have black bark, almost like scales, leading up into dirty purple branches. They have ethereal offshoots like leaves that slowly fade into nothingness.

“What are those… Tendrils?”

“Leaves.”

“They don’t look like leaves.”

“Do you see a sun?”

“No?”

“Stupid questions; they are sucking up dimensional energy.” He says while shaking his head.

“How was I to know?”

“Errm, use your head.” He says, lightly tapping his own. “No sun, they need some other way to live.”

“I see, that makes a lot of sense.”

Stopping, he turns to me. Standing before a thick bit of foliage, “Welcome to Blackwood, the best place in 2 charges.”

“I love how it looks,” I say while admiring the area.

He just nods smugly.

“What are these trees?”

“Annoying.”

“Why?”

“Suck up so much damn energy, I charge at half speed.” He says with a sour face.

“I see, sorry to hear that.” Looking at the trees, “Why come here then?”

“First, it is far better scenery than where I actually live. Second, some stuff grows here that can sell for a tad bit more than what you lose in ya recharge.”

“What stuff?”

Sweet fruits, I know a fruit that gives ya a whole charge, would ya believe. I do love it when I find those. Otherwise, you can grab some bits of da wood, even some plants, sell em at the market.”

“You guys have a market?”

“What do you think us? Barbarians?”

“No… Sorry.”

“Just messing with ya, buddy, no sweat.”

“So, like, I would love to explore the forest. But I also want to see the market.” Cursing myself for falling into his accent.

“No stress, I’ll meet you at the market; one charge that way.” Pointing towards the abyss.

“Draw an arrow.” I will definitely get lost if I follow this man's directions.

He shrugs, drawing an arrow on the dusty end stone floor.

“Also, I have got to ask. What do you guys call your selves?”

“Endermen is fine; we know ya guys call us it.”

“But it is not what you call yourselves, is it?”

“Rozmer, we are the Rozmer.”

“I see, thank you.” Bowing my head slightly.

He turns his head away; “see you at the market.” Quickly disappearing in purple particles.

Turning back around, I begin to wade through the foliage. Chic jumps out my armor, returning to full size.

“Be careful, Chic. We don’t know what might be in here.”

She nods to me.

I grab a sapling and some wood from these trees. I really like how they look.

We walk through, seeing a variety of plants varying between blues and purples. I even spotted a plant with leaves, purple leaves, but still, leaves. It was hard to miss because they were 5 meters wide each and covered in black crystals. They seemed to suck all light into them, creating pitch-black voids like poker dots across its surface.

It doesn’t take long for me to spot a fruit, one of those apples the enderman gave me. “Screw it, let's try it.”

Quickly finding out why it is called a sparkle apple. Aside from it being sickly sweet and as crunchy as a rose apple, I started seeing white stars. They shot past me like bullets, blurring my vision. Closing my eyes didn’t help as I am continuously assaulted by the light.

After the light show ended, I felt light and bubbly. Almost like being drunk, or high, neither, but similar to both; enjoying the buzz, I continue my exploration.

“Come on, Chic. Times a wastin.”