by Cube Kid
In the evening, I went over to Steve’s house. Steve and Mike have been building their own houses in their free time. They live close to the wall, on the edge of the village.
Steve’s house is on the left. Mike’s house looks more like a small castle than a house. And what are those weird face-looking things in the walls? I decided to check Mike’s house out, after I visited Steve.
Steve’s house was pretty basic.
After I said hello, I had to find out where that ladder went to.
“Hey!” Steve said. “Where are you going?!”
I zoomed down the ladder before he could stop me, my curiosity getting the best of me. It was an underground tunnel.
Steve’s house and Mike’s house are linked by this tunnel.
Steve explained it all to me after he climbed down the ladder.
If mobs ever overran one house, they could retreat to the other house through this tunnel.
A pretty cool idea—villagers never did that.
Next, I checked out Mike’s house.
It had an iron door, just like Steve’s. But I still had no idea what those things in the walls were.
Mike wiped his brow after I stepped in. He was hunched over a furnace, smelting some ore.
“Hey, Runt. What’s up?”
“Nothing. I just want to check out your house. Is that cool?”
“Sure.”
The door in the back led to the tunnel connecting to Steve’s house. But I was more interested in the ladder going up. Did it have something to do with those faces in the walls?
I started climbing the ladder. Strangely, there was a kind of attic. It wasn’t big enough for a person to stand up in. Those things in the walls were also visible. Red powdery trails went to each of them. That was redstone, right?
There was a pressure plate on top of his house.
Of course, I wondered what it did, exactly. So I walked toward it . . .
I heard Mike call out from down below: “Hey! Don’t step on that—”
But it was too late.
Click.
Mike climbed up after me and sighed. “ . . . pressure plate.”
Lava poured out everywhere, burning the grass. He stepped on the pressure plate again, and the lava stopped flowing.
“Sorry,” I said with a pained look.
Mike approached the edge of his house and looked down. Then he glanced back at me. “You owe me a new sign.”
* * *
I didn’t have time to cause any more damage. Steve and Mike had to leave to meet with the mayor again.
“Great,” I said, “I hope he has more cookies.”
Steve shook his head. “Sorry, Runt. The mayor said only we can go.”
Mike nodded. “It’s nothing important, anyway. We’re just going to instruct the builders on how to upgrade defenses. Stuff like that lava fountain.”
They took off, and I headed back home.
Things were so quiet these days.
So boring.
No new mob attacks.
No mention of Herobrine.
Yet whenever I saw the mayor, Steve, Mike, and the elders, they all looked so serious.
It was like the calm before the storm.
Something was going on. But hey, they didn’t want me to be a part of it, so whatever. I didn’t feel like training anyway.
I’m burned out.
I went back home and read.
I was back at it again.
I had two combat classes today, and the whole time, I was ducking, tumbling, leaping, and swinging away.
It’s been so boring.
No new mob attacks.
No mention of Herobrine.
Nothing spawning in my monster box.
The biggest news has been that single dark oak tree.
Even Max hasn’t bothered me much. Gone are the days of him calling me the King of Noobs. Today, he greeted me with a simple “Hello.”
And I think he’s right about Pebble. Whenever I walked past Pebble and his friends, they glanced at me and fell silent.
Dude, at least call me some names or something.
SOMETHING.
Someone . . . somewhere . . . DO SOMETHING.
Then, after school, something happened.
More trees in the east. Everyone in the streets was talking about it.
Okay, okay, I really should have been a lumberjack, I guess. I will become a lumberjack. If those trees are seriously the biggest threat to our village, then so be it. I will take down those trees and cut them and shape them into planks.
URG. How boring, right?
As I stood on the east wall, looking at the trees, I noticed Steve and Mike in the distance, along with the mayor.
If I just walked right up to them, they’d probably stop talking, just like Pebble and his friends. So I snuck up on them like a creeper, hid in some grass, and listened to their conversation.
“Fire,” said the mayor. “We need fire to burn those trees.”
“I wouldn’t suggest getting too close to those trees, though,” said Mike.
“What about flaming arrows?” asked Steve. “Is that possible?”
Seriously?
Seriously?!
They were having a hushed and serious conversation about removing trees?!
And they haven’t told me anything about it?!
I just couldn’t believe they wouldn’t tell me about something so small as this. Trees are growing near the village.
Oh dear.
I was angry.
I walked up to them.
“I’ll admit, I’m no lumberjack,” I said, “but I’ve swung an axe a few times before! Come on guys, let me in on this!”
Steve, Mike, and the mayor looked at each other.
Steve stepped forward. “Runt,” he said, “it’s nothing major, okay? We just don’t want to get you involved. We want you to focus as much as you can on your studies.”
“That’s right,” said the mayor. “Runt, remember when I said you would never become a warrior? I was simply testing you. I wanted to see how you would react. And you didn’t let my words affect you in any way. In fact, it strengthened you. That’s how a real warrior would react. So please, go back home and do your homework. Don’t let your level fall behind.”
Mike nodded. “Just a few trees, buddy boy. Nothing we can’t handle.”
Buddy boy?!
I wondered who started using that phrase first, Max or Mike?
Whatever. I know something is up with those trees. But what?
I listened to them, though, and went back home.
That was when I heard it.
A weird noise,
coming from the monster box.
To be continued . . .
Hi Yeah, I KNOW
Whatta cliffhanger, right?!
Seriously. Hurrrr . . .
I had to pause somewhere, though. The story picks right up in book 2:
This edition © 2016 by Andrews McMeel Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission expect in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.
Published in French under the title Journal d’un Noob (Guerrier) Tome I
© 2016 by 404 éditions, an imprint of Édi8, Paris, France
Text © 2015 by Cube Kid, Illustration © 2016 by Saboten
Minecraft is a Notch Development AB registered trademark. This book is a work of fiction and not an official Minecraft product, nor approved by or associated with Mojang. The other names, characters, places, and plots are either imagined by the author or used fictitiously.
Andrews McMeel Publishing
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www.andrewsmcmeel.com
ISBN: 978-1-4494-8087-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016933974
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Andrews McMeel books are available at quantity discounts with bulk purchase for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail the Andrews McMeel Publishing Special Sales Department: [email protected].
Cube Kid is the pen name of Erik Gunnar Taylor, a writer who has lived in Alaska his whole life. A big fan of video games—especially Minecraft—he discovered early that he also had a passion for writing fan fiction.
Cube Kid’s unofficial Minecraft fan fiction series, Diary of a Wimpy Villager came out as e-books in 2015 and immediately met with great success in the Minecraft community. They were published in France by 404 éditions in paperback with illustrations by Saboten, and now return in this same format to Cube Kid’s native country under the title Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior.
When not writing, Cube Kid likes to travel, putter with his car, devour fan fiction, and play his favorite video game.
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