A Virtual World Turned Real (An Unofficial Minecraft Adventure)

Chapter fourteen: The Great Journey

I awoke just before sunrise. Climbing out of bed, I quietly made my way across our shelter and up to the second story, careful not to wake my still sleeping friends. Walking over to the front of the house, I looked out over the Minecraft land, a land so familiar... yet so alien at the same time. Even I had to admit: as much as Minecraft is fun, I couldn't wait to get back to the real world.

Discarding my relative discomfort, I set my mind on the task at hand: getting to the End.
I pulled out an Ender Eye and held it in my blocky hand. In the regular game, you would throw them into the air and they would float off in the direction of the closest stronghold. That, I figured, is what I have to do in this version. Switching it to my left hand, which is my dominant hand, I drew my arm back and threw the Eye as hard as I could.

I didn't go as far as I thought it would.

Instead of flying full force towards the treeline ahead of me, as soon as it left my hand, it hovered off to the east, towards the plains. After about two dozen blocks, it stopped, floated in place for a second, then dropped like a stone to the grassy ground below. I realized I would have to go collect it before it disappeared.
At least I now know which way the stronghold is relatively, I thought to myself.

Jumping off the house, a five block drop, I hit the ground and tucked and rolled, effectively negating the damage I normally would've taken. I took lessons on parkour back in the real world.
One would not believe how useful parkour can be in a regular day.

I walked over the the general area where I saw the Eye fall, and began to search for it. I soon found it lying in a small patch of nearly knee-high grass. I retrieved it and stowed it away. The sun had risen by then, and it cast warm yellow rays all around me. I enjoyed it, because it would likely be the last sunrise I experience in this Minecraft world.

As if to ruin my moment of peace, it was then I heard the rattling of bones, and I thought I smelled smoke.

Turning just in time, I saw a flaming skeleton scrambling for cover underneath a tree. Zombies and skeletons burst into flame if exposed to direct sunlight. That's what you get when all you do is bad things: you don't get to enjoy the good things in life. Chuckling and with a mock smile, I figured I would end this skeleton's misery.

I pulled out my enchanted bow, drew and arrow, pulled the bow string until it was taut, and leveled my aim at the skeleton. He was a little ways away, so I actually aimed higher than him, almost at the top of the tree, compensating for gravity's influence on the arrow.

I exhaled, steadied myself, then let the arrow fly.

It flew through the air in an arch, and fell home on the skeleton. Even at this distance, I could see he flashed red, and to my surprise, he fell over and disappeared in a puff of smoke. He must've taken previous damage from the sun if I managed to kill him in one shot. Regardless, I liked the results.

While I did like a sword better, one can't judge on the effectiveness of a good bow.

Now that the sun was up, I figured it was time for all of us to get up and going. We had a long walk ahead of us.

I walked around to all the houses and politely woke everyone up. Some people grumped over this, but I paid them no attention. I had other, more pressing things to focus on.
Once we were all up and about, we all ate something so we could have energy for the trip ahead. Once that was done, we gathered up all the supplies we would need for the trip. While everyone did that, I went back into my shelter and checked that I had all my things. Once I was certain I was ready, I walked back to the door, took one last look around, then closed the door behind me as I walked out.

Everyone stood gathered, ready, and watched as I approached. It was time to go. I don't know why, but I felt like I needed to say something inspirational. "Alright," I said, standing in front of them all. "Time to put your game faces on. From here on out, life only get harder. But this is the beginning of the end. We get through this, and we all go home."
I looked out on the faces before me; some looked concerned, others determined, but no matter where I looked, I saw hope in everyone's eyes. They looked ready for going home.
"One final effort is all that remains," I continued. "So let's get this over with."

And with that, I pulled out my Ender Eyes and began to walk in the direction I determined earlier, with all my friends in tow.

As we walked I threw Ender Eyes every few dozen blocks to make sure we were on track. We walked east for quite a while, crossing the plains in about an hour's time. By then the plains ended and we came to another forest. The Eyes still pointed east, into the forest. That was the way we went.

We forged ahead, with me at the front, still throwing Eyes to keep us on course. When we thought we were  halfway through the forest we took a rest break, but I still had some energy left and forged ahead still, leaving the others to rest. I followed another Eye and it actually flew out into a clearing in the forest. I threw yet another one, and it flew straight to the centre of the clearing, stopped, than floated downward until it touched the ground and turned into an item again. This clearing...

It was the location of the stronghold; It was right beneath us.

I ran back into the forest yelling for my friends, found my friends and told them the good news that it was right ahead. They followed to see if I was right, and discovered I was. Now all we had to do was dig. But not straight down, that's like rule number one in Minecraft: never dig straight down.
They say that because you never know what's beneath you. You could, for example, dig out into a massive underground ravine filled with lava and fall straight into the lava and burn to a crisp. They always suggest digging in a staircase sort of pattern, even a spiral one if you want to stay in the same general area. So that's we'll do. Dig a spiral staircase.

I pulled out my pick, went exactly where the Eye fell and began to dig down, going one block deeper every time. If I was on my own I would've dug a two by two spiral staircase because that's the smallest one you could make, but I decided that, seizing as I had many others with me, I would dig a three by three, with a pillar in the middle.

So that's how it went for the next while, with me digging downward and my friends following me down. Finally, after what seemed like a thousand blocks later, I broke a stone block to reveal stone brick underneath it and realized we had dug enough. I tunneled through the gray brick and into a hallway made of stone bricks, mossy stone bricks, and cracked ones too. Torches were placed now and then on the walls but not enough to light everywhere. I stepped out into the hall and drew my enchanted sword. I scanned the hall with a practiced eye, looking for anything that lurked in dark places.
Nothing.

I waved the others ahead into the subterranean passageway. Now another hard challenge: actually finding the portal room. Ender Eyes always lead you to the center of a stronghold, so we just had to spread out from there and we'd eventually find it. We fanned out into five man teams and began to explore the stronghold's various passages.