Core Life

Chapter 8: Panic

TW: blood/gore! My first time writing it though, so hopefully it isn't too realistic! Also, there's a fun little 100 hours hardcore reference in here, too :D

Scott was thinking back to his time with the curse. He hadn't talked to anyone about his experience, all he knew is that he killed a lot. It was like a thick, purplish-red haze, and all you could do was watch as your body acted against you. He suspected that he was controlled by the watchers when he succumbed to it, but there was no way to say for certain. After all, the curse normally seemed to act on negative emotions, and he was the only one to succumb to it.

He was interrupted by the shiny ore that jutted out from a deepslate block in front of him. The three of them had been mining in strips, yet they had only gotten a lot of iron - and redstone - before now.
Scott broke the ore free from its craggy prison and held it up to the torchlight. The shine in it perfectly matched his hair.

It was a diamond.

There were three more next to it, so he dug into the other two's strips to tell the news.

'I've found diamonds!' Scott exclaimed. The other two rushed over.

'How many?' Fwhip asked.

'Four! You two can have one each.' Scott tossed a diamond to each of them. 'And that leaves two for me.' Scott rushed over to the nearest crafting table, which was in Grian's tunnel, and began crafting. Soon he held up a shiny new sword of the azure material.

'Well done Scott! Want to race and see who gets the next one?' Mischief shone the avian's eyes.

Scott nodded, and rushed to his strip, trying to mine as fast as possible. Grian followed before Fwhip could react.

'H-hey! Wait!' He rushed to his own strip.

Quite a while later, the three were exhausted. Grian had won the match, and Fwhip and Scott had found more, too. Scott now donned a chestplate, and Grian had a lovely new axe and pickaxe. Fwhip had a sword, pickaxe, and two spare for an enchantment table.

'Oh, enchantment tables can be crafted?' Scott was genuinely surprised. After all, there was only one enchanter in Last Life, and a lot of fights had kicked off because of it.

'Yeah. The crafting recipe was removed in Last Life, for some reason. It's a good thing it's back, but I'll probably stop at your place later to get some enchants if you're fine with that.'

'That's good! Are you two going now?' They had started walking back.

'Yeah, we have a Pearl and a Timmy to look after.'

'Timmy?' Fwhip questioned.

'That's what he calls Jimmy. I don't know why.'

'Ah.'

It wasn't long before they were at the meetup place from before.

'I'll see you soon!' Grian waved as the two parted ways from Fwhip.

When the two ascended, they were surprised to see none of the two troublemakers at home. At first, Scott and Grian looked around the clearing, checking if they'd left any signs... metaphorically or physically. There was a sign, but it was scribbled in an almost unintelligible, yet fancy, font. The sign had been placed neatly on a chest. Scott had noticed it, so he called Grian over.

'There's this,' Scott pointed at the chest. 'But I can't read it very well.'

'Oh, that's Scar's handwriting, I think.' Grian had no clue how Scar had found them.

'Ah. What does it say?'

'Umm, it says 'I got you a housewarming gift!'. I sure hope this is not a trap and is him being sincere.' Grian sighed.