06 – GO BEYOND

It was morning, the first light of the sun coming from behind the hidden horizon. Nearby, everything was still and silent, unmoving. The wind wasn’t blowing this morning, and everything was quiet except for the chirping of some birds in the distance.

Jacob went out into the forest, looking for something to kill. He hoped that the killing too would work like everything else, giving him the choice between classical way and Minecraft way. If that proved not to be the case, then he would have quite the problem.

After a few hours of roaming, during which he had not been idle but explored this strange new world and experimented a bit, he found a strange creature ahead of him. It looked like a forest critter, one he could not identify not only because he had no knowledge of nature, but also because the little animal seemed to have two heads.

The tip of the sword seemed to glint dangerously, as the man wielding it approached with shaky steps. He closed his eyes right when he swung the blade, fearful of what might happen.

“Minecraft, Minecraft, Minecraft, please!”

A puff of smoke, and after the air cleared it away there was nothing there. All that was left of the small critter were two items in Jacob’s inventory now.

Shig meat x1

Shig hide x1

This was not a modded resource, nor anything he saw before. This was something entirely new, something entirely of this world.

He cleared a small area with his stone axe, placed down the furnace and put the meat inside to cook. As he waited for it to finish, he accidentally selected the workbench and noticed something strange in the way it was called.

Crafting table 3x3 x1

“3 by 3? Does this mean that there’s a larger one?”

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Before he could do anything, however, he decided to try out his freshly cooked meat. The smell that was coming from the furnace was fantastic, like the smell of a barbecue in the woods. And it was not very far from what it really was, that memory that the smell evoked.

It tasted a bit bitter, the memory, however. Because he was once again reminded that he was all alone, far from those who were instead with him back when that fond memory was made. The whole barbecue thing was now much different to his eyes, and he approached the furnace with slow and short steps.

The meat slab that was in there was browning and frying in its own fat. The noise coming from Jacob’s stomach soon forced him to shake off his sour mood and to prepare somewhere to eat it.

It was then that an idea struck him, and his face lost all of the weight it had accumulated while a smile made his lips curl upwards. He stored the cooked meat in his inventory, so that it would keep hot. He then took out his 3x3 workbench, and positioned nine wooden planks on it.

On the right, he saw the image of a better-looking crafting table.

Crafting table 4x4 x1

Achievement unlocked: go beyond.

“As I thought. Nice, very nice.” He said to himself, satisfied.

He tried filling this one with wood as well, but nothing happened. If he wanted to have bigger crafting tables, therefore the ability to make more complex objects that went beyond what was originally in the game, he had to find the way to craft a bigger station.

For now, however, this much was enough. He made a table by placing sticks and planks, then a crude and hard wooden chair that resembled so much the one he used to sit on when he played back at home. Somehow, this memory felt different than the other and even brought a smile to his face.

The steak was delicious, tasting much better than it even smelled. It lacked salt, but that was not an issue.

After he ate, he resumed walking through the forest. Here and there he collected flowers and leaves, seeds and strange types of wood, whatever struck his fancy. And he kept going. His missing half heart was still missing, and that slightly worried him but he didn’t give it too much attention.

After a few more hours of walking, he noticed that it was getting dark again. He also noticed that he was not getting tired at all, despite the fact that he had gone almost 48 hours without sleep by now. Still, he decided to dig down and hole himself up for the night, not wanting to risk encountering possible hostile entities while it was dark.

He mined more resources, making the most out of the night he had to spend underground. At the bottom of a ramp of makeshift stairs, which were nothing more than the way he mined the stone going down, a strange material refused to break under even his new iron pick.

He looked at it, studied it closely, and eventually recognized its pattern.

“A modded ore…” Something the he recognized, and next to it another ore still, this time completely unknown.