Sean Wolfe - The Complete Elementia Chronicles - Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message

Stan hobbled over to Charlie next. He wasn’t moving at all, and his wounds looked worse up close. Fearing the worst, Stan reached into Charlie’s inventory and pulled out a watermelon slice. He stuffed it into Charlie’s mouth, hoping for a sign of life. To his relief, Charlie slowly started to chew the watermelon and then gave a sigh. Stan sighed, too, now sure that Charlie would be all right if he could find the right treatment quickly enough.

That left Kat. Stan had no idea where she was. He couldn’t see her anywhere. He was just starting to panic when he heard a raspy, female voice calling his name from within the crater made by the pyramid explosion. He looked into it and saw Kat lying spread-eagle on a ledge about five blocks down. As Stan punched his way through the dirt to get down to help her, it became clear that Kat had had the wind knocked out of her. Her breathing was shallow and raspy.

With great difficulty, Stan and Kat made their way out of the colossal crater and then, without a word, both fell to the ground, unconscious.

Stan woke up to the feel of Rex licking his face. Judging by the fact that it was early morning and the sky was no longer grey, they had been out cold for a while. Stan sat up and woke Kat.

“It’s funny,” she said with a grimace. “Each day I think this game couldn’t get any more dangerous.”

Stan nodded. He understood what she meant. “Well, let’s hurry. We have to get Charlie some help as soon as possible, and I have a hunch that we’ll find that in Element City.” Kat nodded and stood up. Looking at himself, he saw that he was covered in dust and debris from the explosion. “We’d both better jump in the water when we get a chance, too,” said Stan. “We’re a mess!”

Kat didn’t say anything, but got up and walked slowly and painfully over to Charlie. Stan followed right behind her. Together, with extreme difficulty, they slung the unconscious Charlie onto their shoulders, and started limping down the path once again.

It was agony. The Creeper’s explosion had damaged something within Stan, and every breath he took felt detached, like it was hurting rather than helping him. Kat, on the other hand, had a huge slash on her back from battling the Pig-Zombie, and she might have also suffered more injuries from being thrown into the crater. Charlie wasn’t capable of doing anything to help. The wounds to his head and leg were severe, and the thought of these wounds not healing was the only thing pushing Kat and Stan to continue down the path.

After what seemed like an entire day (though, in reality, the sun was high in the sky, and it was only about noon), a wall came into view. It was a huge wall, and the only things that Stan could see over the wall were the tall towers of what looked like a castle. Stan was just noticing the guards pacing back and forth on top of the wall, armed with bows, when something inside him gave an awful lurch. He found himself falling, blacking out before he had even hit the ground.

When Stan woke up, he found himself lying on the ground. There were dirt and weeds beneath him, and brick walls rose on both sides of him. He had just noticed this when he saw Kat squatting down next to him, stuffing a golden apple into the unconscious Charlie’s mouth. Stan noticed that the cut on her back had vanished. She must have eaten a golden apple as well.

“Oh, Kat … what happened?” Stan asked, his hand to his head, as Charlie began to stir, his cuts already completely vanished.

“You passed out,” Kat said. “Right outside the gate. You and Charlie were both down, and I knew that I needed golden apples. None of the guards would even talk to me, and I had to look through about three shops before I found one that was willing to trade for three golden apples. I gave him the crafting table, the furnace and coal, the bow, the eleven arrows, the iron and golden swords, and most of the watermelon, and he still seemed to think that I was almost stealing by taking the apples from him.”

“Wait,” said Stan, trying to process what she had said. “Questions. What do you mean, shops ?”

“Oh, well, we made it to Element City. Apparently, that’s what that wall was.” Stan noticed a row of buildings with players swarming in the streets. “And right at the entrance is the merchant’s area. They barter from inside their shops.”

“OK,” Stan said. “Where are we now?”

“Oh, I just dragged you two into the nearest convenient alleyway and then got the golden apples.”

“OK so … wait a minute … crafting table … furnace, coal … bow, arrows … two swords … watermel— You gave him all our stuff!?” Charlie said, for he’d recovered and was listening now, too.

“And he still thought I was ripping him off, even though I was still bleeding really bad myself,” said Kat, shaking her head. “I tell you, the people here are total jerks compared to the Adorian Village.”

Stan remembered how Adoria had hesitated before telling them that going to Element City was a good idea. This must be what she meant , he thought.

“I’ll say, though,” said Kat. “The guy seemed really surprised when I said that the wounds were from a Zombie Pigman. Apparently they—”

“Wait, what’s a Zombie Pigman?” asked Charlie.

The other two stared at him for a minute. Then Kat said, “Charlie, are you dense?”

Charlie looked confused.

“Dude, what did we just fight? What gave you cuts on the head and leg?”

Charlie concentrated for a second, and then his face lit up. “Oh, I get it! ’Cause it’s a Zombie but it looks like a pig and has the body shape of a man!”

Kat and Stan glanced at each other.

“Let’s hope that’s just a side effect of the apple,” said Kat dismissively. “Anyway, we’re here now, and Goldman told me that the thing that you want to do once you get here is get a job. They offer you lodging and food, and you work for them. Sometimes they’ll offer you a more tedious task, and they’ll pay you in materials. Those materials can be traded for other things that you need, and eventually you’ll be able to open your own house that you buy on the real estate market and open your own business beneath it.”

As she finished her monologue, Stan and Charlie looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“When did you spend so much time talking to G?”

“And why did you call him ‘Goldman’?”

Kat rolled her eyes. “I talked to him at night after training. It’s nice to talk to someone who knows what he’s talking about. And for the record, he prefers to be called Goldman, but he lets people call him G because Goldman is kind of a mouthful. I don’t mind, though,” she added, as Charlie and Stan sniggered. “Let’s go find jobs.”

And with that, the trio stood up, ate the last three watermelon slices, and, with nothing left to their names, walked out of the alley and into the street.

The city was breathtaking. The cobblestone streets were overflowing with people walking down the blocks. Above their heads, a monorail-like system of railroad tracks ran above the houses. And the houses were everywhere. The ground floors of the houses were various stores and shops, with the living quarters situated above.

Overlooking this metropolis were skyscrapers. The area they were in was clearly the merchants’ district, but there were other zones of the city as well, and one of them was filled with skyscrapers. The tallest buildings were three towers, connected by bridges at various points. The middle was crowned by a slender spire. However, the main building of this city was clearly the castle.

Raised up significantly higher than the skyscrapers, this building stretched into the clouds at its peak. The tallest towers of the castle, the ones that could be seen from outside the city over the high wall, must have literally been able to touch the clouds. And the castle was wide, too – it stretched halfway across the city. Even from this distance, they could clearly make out the flag flying from the castle’s bridge. It was emblazoned with a design of three beings: a Creeper, a cow and a player with pale skin, blond hair and a gold crown, who Stan guessed must be the King.