Nick Eliopulos - Minecraft - Deep Dive (Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles #3)

The drowned flashed red. It uttered a fearsome groan and turned to face her.

17

“Well, I got its attention,” Harper said. It lurched toward her. “Uh-oh.”

Harper lifted her bow as the creature came at her. But she was out of arrows.

“Don’t panic,” she said. “You’ve still got a . . . ” Harper held up . . . a loaf of bread.

18

Cooked salmon.

A block of wool.

Her square eyes toggled back and forth in exasperation. I really need to organise my inventory, she thought.

The drowned was almost close enough to slash her. Leading it away from the baby turtles, she backed up all the way to the line of trees at the edge of the beach.

A low hissing sound came from the forest. It was the sound of a creeper, about to explode.

“Oh no,” Harper said. She had nowhere to run. The drowned was right in front of her, blocking her escape. She could see past it, though. She watched the baby sea turtles make it to the water. They scuttled into the ocean.

At least she’d been able to save them.

That was her last thought before the creeper blew up.

19

Chapter 2

Go Ahead; Rock the Boat! It’s Already Super Broken.

P

o saw it all happen as he raced across the beach. He saw the creeper step out from the trees. He watched as it exploded, knocking Harper all the way to the edge of the water.

He wasn’t fast enough to help her. He just couldn’t reach her in time.

“Harper!” he cried. “Harper, are you all right?”

“Ouch,” Harper said. “I actually felt that.” She looked down at her blocky hands. “How does that even work? Are the VR goggles interfacing with our nerves? Or do they just trick our brains into thinking we feel something?”

20

Po breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, you’re all right,” he said with a smile. “If you’re geeking out about the science of being blown up, you’re obviously fine.”

Po still suspected those VR headsets

were more magic than science. He knew

better than to say that to Harper, however. She was the brains of the group, particularly when it came to science. She was also a whizz at the crafting table, where she made swords, tools, and more, all from memory.

Morgan, Ash, and Jodi ran up to join them.

“DID YOU SEE HOW THAT CREEPER TOOK OUT THE DROWNED WHEN IT EXPLODED?” Morgan cheered. “That was amazing!”

“I think you mean scary,” Jodi said. “Harper, you went flying!”

“You should eat some food, Harper,” Ash said. “To restore your health.”

“At least she’s in better shape than the forest,” Po said. Where the creeper had exploded, there was a crater in the ground and a big gap in the line of trees. Blocks of wood, sand, and soil

21

floated there for the taking, along with rotten flesh from the drowned.

“We should grab some of this stuff,” he said. “Maybe we’ll find a use for . . .”

Po froze. He saw something in the distance. It was a massive wooden structure. He could just barely make out the details in the

moonlight. But what he saw thrilled him. “Do you guys see that?” he asked.

“What is it?” Jodi asked.

“Something awesome,” Po answered. “Team, we just discovered a shipwreck!”

They approached the old

shipwreck cautiously. The

moon was getting lower in the

sky, but night wasn’t over yet.

Any number of hostile

mobs might be lurking

nearby.

The ship was big. It looked as though it had run aground, crashing into the beach. It showed signs of damage, but it was still in one piece. Its masts rose high into the sky.

“Can we board it?” Po asked. “I want to see what’s in there.”

Morgan and Ash shared a look. While they all loved Minecraft, Morgan and Ash knew the most

24

about the game.

“What do you think?” Morgan asked her. “I’ve never found a shipwreck before.”

“Me neither,” said Ash. “But they’re supposed to hold treasure chests.”

“Well, now we have to check it out,” Jodi said.

Harper quickly constructed a staircase out of dirt and stone. It would allow them to hop from the beach to the deck of the ship. “We could hack our way in,” Harper said. “But the ship looks so cool, I don’t want to break it.” She peered through a hole in the hull. “Any more than it’s already broken, I mean.”

They all gathered on the deck. Po immediately pointed out the treasure chest at the front of the ship. He knew from reading non-fiction that the front of a ship was called the bow. It was spelled like a bow and arrow but rhymed with now and wow.

“There’s another chest at the stern,” Jodi said, pointing to the back of the ship.

They split up to open the chests. There was a lot of useful stuff inside both chests: carrots

25

and potatoes, gunpowder and gemstones, and even a couple of pieces of enchanted leather armour.

“Not bad for a night’s work,” Po said.

“And we’re not done yet,” Morgan said. “Check it out.”

Morgan led them down a short staircase to the interior of the ship. There was one more treasure chest waiting to be opened.

“Po, why don’t you do the honours?” Ash suggested. “Since you found the boat.”

Po rubbed his blocky hands together. It was like Christmas morning.

He approached the chest, opened it, and looked inside. He saw a faded map, all orange and yellow with a big red X. There were also several bottles filled with a dark blue liquid.

“It’s a treasure map!” he said, excited. “And some potions.”

“Those are potions of water breathing,” Morgan said. “And the map leads across the ocean.”

“Good,” Harper said. “If we decide to follow the map, those potions might come in handy.”

“We are so following the map,” Po said. “Right?”

“Morgan?” Ash said. “You seem unsure about this.”

Morgan brought his square hand up to his chin. He pondered silently for a moment. Finally, he said, “The contents of a chest are supposed to be somewhat random. And this feels . . . not very random.” He paced around in the

cramped quarters.

“It’s way too convenient

that we would find these

water-breathing potions

right here at the

edge of the sea.”

Ash nodded

slowly in agreement.

“I see what you mean.

It’s certainly

suspicious. On

the other hand, maybe

we just got lucky.”

“We are due some luck,” Harper said. “After all, I got blown up a few minutes ago.”

“And the fact that we are here, actually in the game, means that THIS MINECRAFT IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT FROM THE MINECRAFT WE THOUGHT WE KNEW,” Po added. “We’ve already seen some mobs acting strangely. Maybe treasure chests are less random in this version of the game.”

“Maybe,” Morgan said, still thinking.

“DO YOU THINK IT’S A TRICK?” Jodi asked. “A trap?”

Po thought about that. There was a lot they still didn’t know about this place. The five of them accessed this virtual world with special VR headsets their science teacher had created. There had been six headsets, but the sixth headset had gone missing.

And there had been clues that someone else was in here with them. Someone had stolen materials from them and then used those materials to spell out a warning in big blocky letters: BEWARE THE

29

EVOKER KING!

And someone (or something) had recently caused a huge migration of zombies and skeletons. The kids had crossed several biomes over the last few visits in their search for answers. They had run out of land now. All they’d found was the ocean.

It felt like a dead end. But the ocean could be crossed. Po wanted to know what was on the other side.