Stress Cookies! (Hermitcraft mini story)

Chapter 14 ♥︎

As the purple cleared from their vision and they stepped out of the flush obsidian- something Alex wasn't used to with his normal crappy portals -they both looked around in opposite directions to survey the area. There were no mobs in sight, and whatever hallway they were in was well lit up and clean.

"This is fancy." Alex stated.

"Yeah- the braver hermits built most of them." Stress said.

They turned the corner to a purple obsidian and crying obsidian tunnel. It had soul sand on either side for extra speed with soul speed boots, a minecart rail in the center. It was also pretty wide which Alex assumed was for the crazy hermits that wanted to fly in this mess of a place. He didn't see how anyone could make the sharp turn at the end of the hallway flying, but shrugged anyway. He had never even used an elytra; he was no expert.

"Me and Iskall are working on this tunnel. It's not finished though," She said.

"Well I have to say I'm impressed. Mob, ghast ball, and lava proof!"

"Fanks! But Iskall's doing most of the real work, I'm just gathering the resources."

That sounded like real work to Alex, who hated to gather resources even in small amounts, but he didn't push it.

They fell into a comfortable silence after that, walking instead of the minecarts because apparently the track was cut off a little ways after the corner.

Once they had reached the end of the tunnel, Stress hesitantly paused before jumping down the block. Alex casually walked off, ignoring the jab through his leg from the harsh impact.

"When did netherrack get so tough-" He looked down, and noticed it was a stray crafting table he had landed on instead. "Well that explains it." He grumbled to himself and kept going with a quick survey of the area.

There was now a towering building in front of them, like a black pyramid that had entrances on all four sides.

"Ren built 'is one." Stress said, her accent muffling the word "this"

"The guy from earlier?" Alex asked, remembering the fist bump guy. "That said "dude" too much?" He added.

"HA!" Stress cackled. She muffled it quickly and nodded. "That's the one. A funny way to describe him too. Ren helped me run for mayor actually."

"Wait, you ran for mayor!?" Alex asked in surprise. "Wait- Hermitcraft has a mayor?" He backtracked. "I thought Zooma just ran everything."

"Yeah, Grian set it up and all, Mumbo hermit-challenged me-" She chuckled, unsure if that was a word "-to run so he wouldn't be lonely, and then Scar ran with Bdubs." She explained. It was too many names for Alex to really keep track of, but it was still nice to listen to everything.

"Wow, you guys all sound so close." He smiled sadly, avoiding eye contact.

She was about to say something, before her communicator buzzed and she paused.

They were at the other side of the black pyramid, and Alex got a glance at the tall blue structure next to them. There was a bit of space with netherrack in between, but the distance still wasn't enough to see the whole thing at once.

It had stained blue glass around it, so he could see the tall portal inside and the various tunnels extending from the sides. It was suspended over lava and there was a crack in the far end, clearly from an early ghast ball explosion that hadn't been cleaned up.

"Huh that's weird." Stress mumbled.

"What is it?" Alex asked.

"X gave me the coords, which are really far off-" Stress stopped herself, like she had revealed too much.