Lost in the Labrynth

Part 1

I grew up in a small, quaint-looking village called Ardonia where everyone knew everyone and if you didn't, you probably were not from here and weren't here for long. Not that we were discriminate, it was that quite a few people wanted to be here to go to a very special place, but found out it wasn't worth the risk. We were right next to a very big cave which lead to the lowest of areas miners could reach.

Our ancestors knowing how deep it was knew it would be a perfect place to mine. So they built a civilization right next to the hole hoping it would make them rich by mining. But, by the time they got down there and found out that there were absolutely no ores at all, they couldn't move the village elsewhere since they became too dependent on the spot. They first thought this was a complete mistake, but soon found out that they had hit the jackpot, but not the jackpot they were expecting.

It was on one fateful day that there was a miner who was sent down into the depths to do a final check to affirm that this place had no ores at all. He was meant to come back up by sunset, but did not come back up for 2 weeks. He came in a disheveled, poor and as a peasant, but came out a filthy-rich man who could buy himself a whole mansion made of polished quartz and still have enough for 10 times the pension he could ever want. He was wealthy, but he had scars which nobody had ever seen before.

He remarked that he had battled with deadly mutant mobs who had supernatural abilities strong enough to take down every block, warrior or army which stood in it's way. He also commented that although the risk was high, it was well worth the risk when he found chest after chest, barrel after barrel filled to the absolute brim with gems miners could never dream of ever obtaining in their lifetime.

These words made the mayor of the town decide to stay at this very barren wasteland, but to make sure he wasn't just doing this for a very in-obvious reason, he sent down a team of soldiers who were tasked on checking for dangers and maybe finding some more treasure? But only half of them left the exit with less than half of what the miner got.

The soldiers were terrified and developed PTSD and unlisted as warriors having nightmares once every few days of spine-chilling mutant zombies and sniping bow skeletons who always hit their target.

The mayor himself was scared of the monsters and beasts finding a way out of the maze and destroying the town if not the empire, but he soon found out that he had more immediate troubles to worry about.

It was just after the harvesting season when the Nether King raised an army of every mob there is and charged through a massive portal into the Overworld burning down village after village even before they could warn the Kingdom of an attack. The Nether King succeeded in taking gold, emeralds and all kinds of wealth from towns, looting and pillaging whatever they found.

The military scraped together a bunch of untrained, hungry civilians who used to be farmers living a peaceful life now dragged into a bloody, free-for-all war against special forces who had better equipment. Everyone fought against the common enemy who were superior to them and the Overworld suffered heavy losses. Food chains were shattered, the prices for food skyrocketed and the population of the people plummeted.

There was no safe place to mine, farm or even work at all. The people of Ardonia were reluctant at first, but found out it was their only hope of survival to venture down in the deep, mapping every square inch, distributing all the riches which were gathered.

-Maxwell's POV-

Now this is the part where I come in, so you see, I was trotting in the forest doing my own thing and then I heard a deep "Aargh!" as if someone was just stabbed. I instantly flew out of there knocking into a very strong, massive body as if made of compressed obsidian. I fell to the earth scraping my skin on the soft podzol (thankfully I didn't get a bruise).

I stood up ready to smack that person in the face and say "What the hell man?" But as I looked the air was sucked out of my lungs as I saw a Nether-looking wither skeleton wearing a very strong looking armour. He seemed knocked out after smashing into me, well obviously, if he didn't he would have spun around and sliced my head off like a samurai.

I lifted him off the ground and tried carrying him home, he was light since he was just a skeleton, but the tough part was the armour which not even heavy weightlifters could carry. I instead chucked it and the skeleton in my backpack and rolled it downhill.

The village was tranquil and it was a nice, sunny day to go skipping around the place, but I had more important things to do. Lots of people stared at me or at least eyed me for a few seconds, watching me struggle to roll my own backpack.

I shoved the object into my house which was more like a compartment and sat down on my bed, wondering what to do with the wither skeleton. Maybe kill it or even send it to the guillotine since the thing was an enemy to the public. Remembering I have a secret room under my bed, I pushed it down the ladder and watched it fall all the way down (not that far).

I traveled down the ladder and took it's body and tied it to a rickety old chair (which I triple knotted). I took another look at his gleaming armour and netherite sword and thought about using it in secret since it was quite a deadly blade, but I shook my head and chucked it into the lava pool near me which I used in my blacksmithing. As soon as I dip through the surface I tried to grab it in time but would get my hand burnt.

I cursed, thinking of how much money I could've sold it for and all the things I could get with that money. But my mouth was ajar when I saw the lava-proof sword float along the surface.

"What am I, an idiot? Of course it's lava-proof- it's from the nether for gods sake!" I chuckled to myself.

I decided to take it with him and the armour. The smell of metallic items and lava was about to make me sneeze (which I REALLY suffered from) so I booked it out of there like a cheetah on steroids.

I put the armour into my cupboard and a knock on the door kicked me out of my autopilot trance. I raced to the door to open it since leaving a guest unanswered was a sign of disrespect. I reached the door and tugged it open. My heart stopped when I saw father who's name is Pentecost wearing a full set of gear other than his helmet which he held under his right arm sort of in an astronaut stance.

I was about to blurt out the words which I had said at least a trillion times, "PLEASE CAN I COME WITH YOU?!" But was hushed by Pentecost who uttered that he was about to say goodbye.

Rage, boredom and embarrassment went to war with each other in my mind, but embarrassment won, so I stood there stupidly, not knowing was to say.

"I guess I'll see you in two days, bye!" Pentecost shut the door before I could reply. I put his jacket and boots on and left just in time to see Pentecost and Nancy (Pentecost's fellow tomb raider) drink their slow-falling potions and leap into the massive, circular ravine. The crowd dispersed after they exited into the hole. I leaped over to the hole and saw nothing but darkness, not even the kind of darkness which is the absence of light.

It was just unexplainable.

He stood at the edge and saw Mateo, his pet chicken stand on the other edge blinking at him as if saying "Are you so stupid that you want to go in there? pff- you're totally an idiot." Well that's what he thought he meant, because the next thing he knew the chicken jumped over the edge like a fruitcake.

Which made him react into jumping to save the chicken, forgetting that firstly chickens can float slowly downwards and secondly, there was a rope which the people of the village put there in case anyone falls in accidentally, which the chicken can grab onto with it's beak. He just had enough time to swear at the back-pecking chicken before going too deep for even an obsidian anvil to be heard.