PBG MineCraft Hardcore Season V

[16] Splunkin' Adventures

[Todd POV]

Despite the eventful entrance, the rest of the journey to the rouvine that followed was rather tame. Austin looked for good places to mine a lateral staircase downwards and Jeff silently wished for more mushroom soup. Not long after Austin decided the cluster of gold was a good indication for the prizes that may come below. Jeff disagreed and began working on a more barren surface, actively digging downwards secretly hoping he would find more treasure.

"First one that finds diamonds dies second!" Austin shouted from his little mining area.

(FORESHADOW?)

"Why do you immediately suppose both of us will die? We could very well both survive this..." Jeff shouted back from his smaller mine.

(FORESHADOW???)

"...or we can both die and disappoint everybody." Austin replied, still enthusiastic even though his attitude dropped by a mile.

(FORESHADOW?!?)

Jeff rolled his eyes and continued his mining, continuing  downwards carelessly with his iron pickaxe. It was silent for the next ten minutes or so, catering no sounds other than the constant scraping sound of a pick striking rock. The two, although taking alternate routes, found a whole lot of interesting items from Lapis to Redstone, effectively raising their levels without them noticing. There was not a sign of misfortune for the two adventurers yet - only neutral gains from the world below.

As Jeff accidentally tunnelled through a small cave that contained a small lake of molten lava, he noticed something glimmering next to the lava that made his heart skip a beat.

(Jeff POV)

"Diamonds!" I shouted, excitement blasting through the caverns.
"Austin I found diamonds!"

Despite being approximately a mile away, Austin heard my scream and shouted back with glee. At least I thought it was glee: it kinda sounded like a hybrid of croaking and screaming, like the sound he made after playing hotel Mario for too long.

"That's great--  wait... that means I'll die first!" He shouted back, tone beginning to sink.

(FORESHADOW?!???!???)

Seriously?

"Dude, you're more better at adventuring so I bet I'll die before you do!" I yelled back.

(FORESHADULU?!?!)

Despite our crazy negative behaviours finding this cluster of shining diamonds made my day ten times better than the last. Also considering I lost almost all my friends yesterday anything is way more happier than that.
Thank god for Austin.
I can't bear to imagine what it would be like if everybody was gone...

"What's your favourite ball?!" Austin yelled at me from his mine.

Okay Austin's going insane... I should probably go accompany him before he goes mad from being alone for too long. I left my little mine to join his.

"Seriously Jeff what's your favourite ball?" Austin screamed back.

I sighed.
"Basketball."

"No I meant ball, not ball sport." Austin replied loudly, still not noticing I'm approaching him.
"Like mine's a bouncy ball."

I put a hand on shoulder,
"Dude... you might be going insane." I murmured.

He laughed.
"Sure...sure..."

Then he proceeded to sing like a Disney character the rest of our journey downwards.

"I can sing,
Whatever I want!
'Cause my friends are dead,
and Jeff cant control me!
La la la laaaaaa."

If my ears don't start flowing constant blood, I think I might have superpowers.
Thank god his demonic song ended as we hit diamonds - which he then started to screech crazily. This whole time I thought I was the crazy one... that

"Diamonds! Diamooooonds!" Austin laughed in almost a melodic tone, excitedly poking the diamond with his pickaxe.

Patting him across the head like a puppy I sighed,
"Let's get em and go - the caves are making you go crazy."

"What? No! We barely have enough for a chestplate!" He retaliated,
"I'm not resting until I get enough."

I rolled my eyes for the hundredth time, but it just gets my eye-roll worthy the longer it takes to leave these wretched caves. That's enough, if Austin wants to venture off he can - I really don't want to play the parent here.

"Okay whatever you want, I'll head back up now." I said, throwing him a couple of pieces of steak.

He grabbed it out of mid-air and began eating it right away, stubbornly chewing on the cold but tender strip of meat.

"Suit yourself." He said through a mouthful of steak.

~~~~~~~~~

It took thirty minutes to hike back up to our house and an extra twenty minutes to try to climb out of the crater the foreboding creeper made.

I stared at the empty house... then my gaze wandered to the oven, then to the crafting table...
...well since they're all not here I suppose I can FINALLY do what I want to do!

And nobody can judge!

~~~~~~~~
[Austin POV]

After Jeff left me on my own I had a rather linear experience, mining around looking for more precious diamonds and singing my heart out. I completely lucked out when I found seven more, but after that my legs started to give away and I knew it's time for a break.
That's enough diamonds anyway... I couldn't wait for a proper meal at home, a bowl of milk and some cookies will do wonders at this point.

That's all I thought about on my way back, tirelessly pushing on back so I can sink my K-9 like teeth into the baked goods.
It only took a cool twenty minutes to reach the door leading to our cozy mansion.

"Guess what I got Jeff!" I said, pushing open the door with an armful of shining diamonds.

Jeff silently stared at me without the slightest movement, half of his face still submerged in (one of his many) mushroom soup and surrounded by over ten buckets. On the table there also stood a picture frame of a hamster with the word squiggles labelled below and several lit candles illuminated the table.
At this point even I stopped moving and just froze at the entrance.

"I-I-I can explain..."