The Complete Elementia Chronicles: Quest for Justice; The New Order; The Dusk of Hope; Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay

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СКАЧАТЬ it well, they could tell that he was impatient by the time it was over.

      The match between Charlie and the other boy was over in ten seconds, but that was mainly due to the fact that the boy couldn’t stop gaping at Kat for long enough to stop Charlie from actually walking to within one block of him and firing the three arrows into his chestplate at point-blank range. Archie proceeded to slap his own face with his blocky hand at this.

      The match between Kat and Charlie lasted longer than the one between her and Stan, but that was mainly due to that fact that Charlie’s strategy consisted of running in an unpredictable pattern and not trying to shoot at all. The match stopped after Kat ran out of arrows. Archie then rolled his eyes, stood up, whipped out his bow, and proceeded to fire three arrows at the still-moving Charlie in a matter of seconds. All three arrows sunk themselves into Charlie’s headgear.

      After a long day, Archie stood up, sighed, and said, “Let’s go.” It was clear from the tone of his voice that he didn’t think that any of them had a knack for archery. They all walked back to the motel to go to bed feeling slightly disappointed.

      As everyone was getting ready for bed, Sally asked Stan as she pulled off her armour, “So, what did you think of your first day of training?”

      “Well,” said Stan, “let’s just say I hope tomorrow is better, a lot better.” And they both laughed.

      The next day was considerably more enjoyable by all accounts. After a breakfast of bread, the four new players followed G to the outskirts of the village and took a ride in some mine carts to the entrance of a large mine.

      The upper mine was illuminated by torchlight, but Stan still couldn’t make out the sides. It was enormous. As they went further down, there were fewer torches, but Stan could now see dozens of players hacking away at the sides with pickaxes. Stan guessed that this was where all the good materials were.

      The mine carts took them past several stops at different levels, and all the way down to the bottom of the mine. Down there, Stan saw a room constructed out of cobblestone, with torchlight inside. The four new players and G walked into the room, and G explained Mining 101 to them. He showed them how to distinguish the seven different types of ore: coal, iron, redstone, gold, lapis lazuli, emerald and diamond. Then he showed them which materials the pickaxes were good for mining and offered some basic mining safety tips: don’t dig straight down, watch out around gravel and sand, and so on.

      Once they were done, G took them out of the cobblestone-block room, gave out stone pickaxes, and taught them how to fight with them. Once again the training suits were put on, and there was another tournament. To everyone’s surprise, the one who excelled fastest at pickaxe fighting was Charlie. They had to get three hits in on their opponent, and Charlie beat Stan in the first round and then Kat in the second round. Needless to say, Kat obliterated the other boy. The best moment was during Charlie’s fight against Kat. He was up by two points when Kat took a lunge at him. He fell back and threw his pickaxe through the air, knocking off her helmet.

      They then started to mine. Stan did all right. Gravel only fell onto him once, and he got out of it pretty quickly. He also found some coal and iron ore, and even two blocks of lapis lazuli ore, which G said was a rare block used to make blue dye. Kat did about as well as him, not having any gravel fall on her, but not finding any lapis lazuli either. Charlie, however, excelled once again. He seemed to have a sixth sense that told him which way to dig to find the best materials. He brought up much more iron than either of the others, and he also found five lapis lazuli ore blocks and even some gold ore, which G said was very rare. It was a shame, said G, that all materials found during the programme went to the stores of the village.

      “But don’t worry, I’m sure that you’ll find really good stuff mining on your own, Charlie,” said G with a smile. “You have the best mining instincts of anyone I’ve ever taught.”

      The three went home feeling content that they had done better at mining than they had at archery, with Charlie absolutely beaming at his newfound prowess.

      They had a dinner of watermelon and some more bread, and they were going to bed when Sally spoke to Stan yet again.

      “Tomorrow you guys are with me,” she said to him. “I’m teaching you sword fighting and crafting.”

      “Is that so?” said Stan. “Well, I look forward to it.”

      “Just know,” said Sally, “I have high expectations for you.”

      Stan’s stomach flipped. “In what? Sword fighting or crafting?” he asked. Immediately afterwards, he felt like an idiot.

      She looked him in the eyes and smiled. “Both,” she said, and she went off to bed.

      The following day, after bowls of mushroom stew for breakfast, they headed into the dojo above the crafting building to train in sword fighting and crafting.

      Stan was nervous. Before the archery and mining lessons he had felt excited, yes, but not nervous. He remembered the exchange with Sally last night. She had high expectations for him. He couldn’t let himself mess this up.

      Stan, Kat, and Charlie sat down across from Sally. The other boy had been moved to the class with his other friends after a not-so-subtle request by G and Archie. Stan listened intently as Sally explained that the most important aspect of sword fighting in Minecraft was to not think too much and to basically just do what felt natural.

      After she explained and demonstrated some different techniques, she pulled three training suits out of her inventory. “Stan, Charlie, Kat, please come up here.”

      They did as she said, not knowing what would happen next. G and Archie had called them up two at a time to fight, not three.

      “Put these on,” she commanded, holding out three sets of diamond body armour. They obliged. As Stan was pulling on the diamond trousers, he saw Sally pull two stone swords and one iron sword out of her inventory.

      “Kat, Charlie, come stand over here,” she said. They walked to where she was standing. She threw Charlie and Kat the stone swords. “Stan, just stand there.” She threw him the iron sword.

      “Kat, Charlie, when I say go, you are going to attack Stan with everything you’ve got. Stan, you have to defend against both of them. As usual, you are out after three hits.”

      Stan was dismayed. He had never really fought another player with a sword in his life. He knew that Charlie wasn’t any better than he was, but Kat had supposedly done all that stuff on the other servers. She had killed a player and taken his sword and pickaxes! How was he going to beat her?

      “Sally, can’t I get some advantage or something? Like I have four hits and they have two? Wouldn’t that be fair?”

      Sally sniggered. “Stan, imagine if a group of about twenty players armed with loaded bows and diamond swords jumped out of the woods and ambushed you. Would that be fair? No, but you’d still have to fight, right? You would, ’cause you know what? Sometimes life isn’t fair. And I was nice. You have an advantage. You have an iron sword and they both have stone, so don’t be a wimp, noob! Now take your positions!”

      Up until this point, Kat had been smirking and Charlie had been looking confused, but now they both dropped into fighting stances, swords raised. Kat wore an expression of aggression, while Charlie wore one of apprehension about attacking his friend. Stan was petrified, but he could see Sally’s mind wasn’t changing, so he readied himself to fight.

      Sally СКАЧАТЬ