My Life with Overly-Attached Mobs: A Minecraft Story

Chapter 3: Bane of Arthropods

The trek across the desert was a bit more tolerable in the presence of the monster girls, chatty as they were. Although I couldn't see any other creatures along the sand hills, I felt like I was safer with them around. I wondered if they felt the same way as we walked up to the village together. 

As instructed, Cupa and Andr stayed behind just far enough to stay out of the villager's line of sight. I pressed onward, checking to see if there were any familiar faces that weren't occupied by some menial chore. I caught a glimpse of Viktor the Blacksmith as he hammered away on a new spade. His craftsmanship was decent, but I only came to him for repairs. 

"Ah, good to you see you, human," Viktor greeted me. "I take it you're in need of my handiwork." 

The villager had a glint of pride in his eyes. He dusted off his black apron and set his tools down on a stone slab. He could tell rather quickly that I wasn't here for repairs. His mien changed from pride to mild concern as I searched my mind for the right words. 

"Hey Viktor. This might sound strange, but I bought this magic wand from Vilmar, and-"

"Ah, yes. He told me about that on his last visit. No one else would buy it except for you."

"Wait, why?" I raised an eyebrow at this remark. 

"We are superstitious. That wand was made by Evokers, and it's bad luck to take anything from them. I can't help you if your problem is magic-related."

"Great," I rolled my eyes. "Then can you tell me where the cleric is?"

"He's inside the temple, looking at hieroglyphs. Actually, could you check up on him? None of us have seen him all day."

I nodded and thanked Viktor for the little amount of assistance he gave. The pyramid-shaped temple stood on the western edge of town, with its upper right corner buried under several feet of sand. It was an ancient construct, far older than the village itself. I was curious as to who built it, but none of the villagers showed much interest. To them, it was best left alone, for even they had no clue as to exactly who assembled it.

It also seemed strange that the cleric cared about it all of a sudden. 

I approached the temple entrance hesitantly. The orange blocks resembled hateful eyes peering down at me, and the only way inside was carved to resemble a gaping maw.

Who did these people worship in there? The mystery was alluring, but I had another task at hand. I went inside the temple and immediately noticed that it was dark. If the cleric was here previously, then he obviously forgot to bring his own torches. 

But when I inspected the walls more thoroughly, I saw that multiple torches had been placed. The disturbing part was that they had all gone out some time ago. Afterwards, I saw that the middle of the floor gave in to a spiral staircase, one that was too claustrophobic for my tastes. 

Mustering my courage, I decided to go in anyway. The steps were dusty, and once I had lit my torch, I swiftly detected a trail of footprints going in one direction: down. The cleric must have been down there still. Could he have fallen? My pace quickened and my heart started to pound. 

What I found at the bottom, however, was much worse. The cleric was wrapped head-to-toe in spiderwebs. I doubted he could hear or see me even while I called out his name. With my sword, I began cutting the webs as if they were wood. My blade worked like a slow-moving saw. 

In that moment, I heard a loud thud as the one responsible for this mess landed right behind me. This time, I wasn't afraid to turn around. On the other end of my sword was yet another human-like mob, only this time, it was a spider.