The Chained Watcher

The Search Continues

Once they passed the edge of the obsidian, the desolated ground became visible below them. And wow was it desolate. Vast stretches of land covered by nothing but cobblestone, lava, and water. Occasionally small fights could be seen, looking quite dangerous with the amount of end crystals going off. A random arrow got course-corrected up towards them, which Grian had to vaporize before the magic-guided arrow could hit. Maybe going further up wouldn't be such a bad idea...

Nope, further up was also a bad idea. More fights could be seen taking place in the sky, with the players moving in ways that physics really wasn't supposed to allow. Was this entire server filled with nothing but hackers and anarchy? Because at this point it really seemed like it.

~~~

Several hours of flying later, the concentration of hackers had thinned enough that they could fly for over five minutes without seeing one. Now, this wouldn't be that impressive if not for the fact that this meant that they were thousands upon thousands of blocks from spawn, and any normal terrain was nearly impossible to find if they were any closer. Even now, massive cobblestone structures loomed in the distance.

And then they saw the crafting tables. Everywhere they looked, there was nothing but crafting tables. The ground? Crafting tables. The trees? Crafting tables. The giant crafting table? Well, that was made out of other blocks, but they were made to look like a crafting table. There were nether portals surrounded by crafting tables. And the giant cross standing in the middle? Guess what, crafting tables.

If he didn't know better, Grian would think there was a cult around crafting tables somewhere near here, but no one would actually do that... right? It was a bit hard to disprove when he found a labeled crafting table. "'Official CTV CraftingTable!' What even..." he read out loud. A sound made him turn around. Several people carrying crafting tables were staring at him and Mumbo with surprised expressions, like they weren't expecting company.

This was legitimately the first time he had made eye contact with someone on this server who didn't immediately try to kill him. Should he try speaking to them? Not like he has anything to lose... "Hello?"

The crafting table carriers exchanged looks, before one of them asked a question. "What are you doing here? How did you find this place?" Well that sounded friendly. Was there even a point in not answering? If they attacked, then that would mean they probably had information he would then be justified in getting out of them.

Grian straightened himself up and replied, "Well, we were looking for one of our friends, and picked a random direction." Several of them seemed to relax slightly. Maybe they'd be open to questions? "He got kidnapped from our server, so we're searching for him." Surprise was visible for a moment before their expressions turned grave.

"You're saying someone brought your friend here?" They all exchanged glances in one of those silent conversations. One of them muttered angrily, "Those idiots, they're gonna bring down the entire hub's anger on the rest of us..." So they did know something? The one who had originally spoken turned back to him, spotting his hopeful look. "Before you ask anything, no we don't know where your friend is." Grian's expression dimmed slightly. "However, a group recently appeared on this server with rather... radical beliefs. They're probably the ones who took him."

Grian lit up again, "Great! Do you know where their base is?" Now they're giving him weird looks. One of them even started laughing.

"Bud, if someone outside their group knew where their base was, it wouldn't be standing." Wouldn't be standing? Why wouldn't it be standing? His confusion must have shown on his face, as the laughing one butts in. "Didn't you see the lava casts on the way here? Any of the ruins? Bases don't last unless no one finds them." They wiped a tear from their eye. "You don't build something here and expect it to last. This is actually our second valley, you know. Our first one got the coords exposed so the big griefers came for it."

Well, so much for that then. Another of them starts poking at the server's magic. A glitchy compass materializes in their hands, and they pass it to Grian. "This should let you find someone from the same server as the holder, but tell me how well it works. Dave still won't stop gloating about his latest exploit, and if this thing works well I can one-up him. Oh, and don't take it out of the server, or it might explode violently." That sounded dangerous, but if it worked...

It is currently very not working for Grian. He passed it to Mumbo, and the spinning compass needle stabilized, pointing mostly North and a little East. Gut feelings and arbitrary directions for the win! The fact that the guy seems surprised that it worked did little to dampen his enthusiasm. "Let's go let's go let's go!" He started pulling Mumbo's hand in the direction indicated by the compass.

Mumbo waved to the now all laughing crafting table people, though he stumbled a bit when one of them said "May the crafting table guide you" in return. They were actually a cult? Like, a genuine cult. This server was weird!