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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Cover photo by Megan Miller
Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-0350-6
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-0353-7
Printed in Canada
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Discoveries
Chapter 2: Journal Entry: Warnings
Chapter 3: Finding William the Explorer
Chapter 4: Journal Entry: My Friend Oliver
Chapter 5: Maps and Snowballs
Chapter 6: Journal Entry: Secret Armies
Chapter 7: Climbing a Mountain
Chapter 8: Journal Entry: Potent Potions
Chapter 9: Brewing
Chapter 10: Journal Entry: The Wheat Farm
Chapter 11: Tracking Down Old Friends
Chapter 12: Journal Entry: Dangerous Desert
Chapter 13: Sandy Dreams
Chapter 14: Journal Entry: Explorations and Fame
Chapter 15: Fact or Fiction?
Chapter 16: Journal Entry: Secret Temple
Chapter 17: Puzzle Piece
Chapter 18: Journal Entry: A Call for Help
1
DISCOVERIES
I think I see diamonds!” Harriet called out from where she was digging.
“Where?” asked Jack, pulling his pickaxe out of the block he’d been breaking.
Toby had been mining with an iron shovel nearby, but he stopped and walked over to Harriet. “Where are the diamonds? I don’t see any blue.”
The group had just started their planned treasure-hunting excursion through the Overworld, when they had spotted an abandoned mineshaft and stopped to mine for diamonds. Diamonds are extremely valuable trading resources in the Overworld, and finding some would be a great start to their treasure hunting.
“Look, it’s blue!” Harriet pointed to a cluster of diamonds in the mine. She picked up as many as she could and handed some to her friends. “We have to store these in our inventories.”
“I can’t believe we really found diamonds,” said Toby. It was becoming increasingly difficult to find diamonds in the Overworld, and this was a lucky find.
When they placed the last gemstone in their inventories, Harriet dug her pickaxe deep into another layer of the mineshaft. But Toby just stood there. “I doubt we’ll find any more diamonds here. We should just take what we have and move on.”
“Seriously?” Harriet kept digging deeper.
“Yes,” insisted Toby. “We should stick to our plan. We want to reach the jungle before nightfall.”
Jack held a map in his hands. “It looks the jungle is still far away. We should leave. I hear there’s a lot of treasure there.”
Harriet was annoyed. “We don’t even know if there’s a jungle temple with treasure. But we do know that there are diamonds in this mineshaft.”
“I think we’ve already unearthed all the diamonds.” Toby looked over his inventory.
Harriet and Toby would have kept arguing, if Jack hadn’t interrupted. “Watch out!”
Silverfish crawled on the floor toward them. They put their pickaxes away and grabbed their diamond swords to strike at the swarm.
“There are so many of them,” Harriet called out as she swung her sword at the seemingly endless silverfish crawling at their feet.
“Should we search for a spawner?” asked Jack.
“I’m not sure,” Harriet replied breathlessly. “I think we need to destroy these first.”
The group used all of their strength to battle the silverfish, until the room went still. “I think I got the last of them,” said Jack.
Looking around for any last stragglers, Toby spotted something in the corner of the mineshaft. “Hey, what’s that?”
The trio walked over to the corner, and Harriet said, “It looks like an enchanted book. That will come in very handy for our treasure hunting!” She leaned over to pick it up and leafed through the first few pages of the book. “This isn’t an enchanted book at all. It looks like somebody’s journal.”
“Do you think somebody is living in this mineshaft?” Jack looked around the dark and creepy mineshaft for a bed.
Harriet studied the book. “No, I think this journal is old.”
“Who wrote it?” asked Toby as he stood behind Harriet trying to get a good look at it.
Harriet turned the book to look at the journal’s spine. “I don’t know. But it has a warning on the cover! It says, ‘Do not open this book! Anyone who reads this will be cursed’!”
“Really? Let me see,” said Jack.
Toby laughed. “What a threat. How would they know if we read it?”
Jack didn’t see anything funny about it and didn’t understand why Toby was laughing. “I wouldn’t laugh—curses should be taken seriously. Reading this book could be really dangerous.”
“You’re such a scaredy-cat! Nothing is going to happen to us if we just read it,” said Toby.
“How do you know?” Jack countered.
“Because there are no such things as curses. Right, Harriet?”
Harriet hesitated. She wanted to agree with Toby, but she wasn’t totally one hundred percent sure. She had never read a book that had a warning on its cover. She was conflicted. “I’m not sure. Although, I’ve never been cursed, I can’t know that curses don’t exist.”
Toby grabbed the book from Harriet’s hands. “Well, unlike both of you, I’m not afraid to read it.”
“Toby, don’t!” shouted Harriet. She was more afraid than she’d realized.
Jack looked nervous.
Toby was about to open the journal anyway when a silverfish crawled next to his foot and bit him. “Ouch!”
“Watch out!” Harriet lunged at the silverfish with her diamond sword. “Jack was right—the book is cursed! Put it back!”
Toby glared at her. “That silverfish has nothing to do with me reading the journal. It’s just a coincidence.”
Harriet wanted to believe Toby. He made sense, but she was still worried. The book didn’t say what exactly would happen if they read it, so she began to imagine all sorts of ways they could be cursed. “What if we read the journal and are destroyed by a creeper and respawn in the Nether?”
“That’s impossible. We weren’t even in the Nether.” Toby held the book open in front of him.
“Please don’t read it,” begged Jack.
“I am going to read it now, just to prove that you can’t be cursed from reading a book.”
“But that’s som
ebody’s personal journal,” said Jack. “Even if we aren’t cursed, it’s still wrong to read someone’s private writing.”
Toby paused for a moment. He knew Jack was right. He wouldn’t want anyone reading his diary. In fact, he’d never let anyone know he even kept a diary. That was a secret. It was full of all the things he could never to say to other people in real life. He closed the book.
“Thank you.” Harriet let out a sigh of relief.
“Why do you think this person”—Toby looked at the cover—“William the Explorer, left his personal journal in this abandoned mineshaft?”
Jack stared at him. “Did you say William the Explorer?”
“Yes.” Toby pointed to the very bottom of the cover. “The Journal of William the Explorer.”
“Haven’t you heard of him before?” asked Jack.
Harriet and Toby stood silently, watching Jack. Toby looked down at the brown journal.
“William the Explorer was the greatest explorer in the Overworld, ever. He went missing a long time ago. People have been searching for him for ages. Nobody has been able to find him. That journal will be very valuable. Maybe it can even lead us to him!”
“Does this mean you want me to read it?” Toby was confused.
Jack paused. He was too excited about having discovered the journal of the famous William the Explorer to worry about curses. “I think we have to read it. Maybe it can help us find him. He may have left it here as clue to his whereabouts.”
“What if he doesn’t want to be found?” asked Harriet.
“Everybody wants to be found,” said Jack.
“Okay, let’s read it!” Harriet was quick to give in. She was curious too.
Toby began to read the first page of the journal aloud to his friends. They hovered over him, staring at its worn-out pages as they listened.
2
JOURNAL ENTRY: WARNINGS
If by chance someone stumbles upon this journal, they should burn it. Others should never read what I write in here. This book chronicles my explorations in the Overworld, and only exists so I can study my past trips. Like any good explorer, I keep a journal of all my finds. This book is for my eyes only. If you find yourself in possession of this book, please return it to me or burn it. If you do read it, you’ll be cursed. You must take this warning quite seriously. Please stop reading right now. Please put the book down, and do not continue to the next page. You will suffer at great costs if you continue to read the following pages.
I know what I wrote is a bit repetitive, but as my friend Oliver always says, “Sometimes you have to repeat yourself to be heard.” Please listen to my words and close the book. You were never meant to read it.
Trip 1: Exploration to the Cold Biome
Today Oliver and I reached the top of a mountain in the cold biome. It felt as if we were never going to reach the mountain’s peak, but when we did, we were rewarded with stunning views of our old hometown. As we looked down at the town, we both admitted that we missed home.
Oliver asked me, “Do you think we made the right decision?”
I didn’t know how to respond. I had been pondering the same question for a long time. It was a hard decision to leave home to explore the Overworld, but that was our dream. We wanted to map the world so that others could follow in our footsteps. We wanted to open up the Overworld so that everyone could enjoy it.
Oliver’s a map expert and also an alchemist. He knows how to brew all kinds of potions, and he’s also very good at spotting ingredients for them. I’m more of a fighter. A warrior. A griefer once summoned an army of zombies and skeletons to attack the villagers in our town. I helped protect our people and led the town to a victory. I am not afraid to fight for what is fair. But I never attack unless I’m provoked. We were a good team together.
As we trekked through the snowy landscape, another pair of explorers approached us. I recognized one of them. His name was Charles, and he had spent some time in our village after one of his long expeditions. I remembered asking him about the trip and all the places he had seen. His travels had inspired me to become an explorer.
“Charles,” I called out, but when he turned around, he didn’t seem to recognize me.
“Hello?” Charles’s sword was out; he didn’t know if I was a friend or a foe. In either case, he was ready to attack.
“It’s William,” I explained. “You spent some time in my town—we talked.”
Charles paused. “Yes, I remember you. What are you doing in the cold biome? This is fairly far from your home.”
“I’m also an explorer.”
Charles seemed surprised. “You’re an explorer? But my friend Thao and I are the only explorers of the Overworld.”
“Well, not anymore,” I replied, but as these words fell from my mouth, I realized they might have sounded a bit cocky. So I guess I can say I wasn’t surprised when Charles and Thao came at Oliver and me with their diamond swords.
“Ouch!” I shouted and rushed to strike Charles with my sword. “Why are you attacking me?”
“I discovered the cold biome and I am placing it on a map!” Charles roared as he slammed his diamond sword against my arm. I was losing hearts dangerously fast.
“Okay. Take credit for this cold biome.” I could barely spit out these words.
Charles put down his sword. “I will destroy you if you continue to explore the Overworld. We are the only explorers and we don’t need any competition.”
I looked over at Oliver, and he nodded his head.
Oliver said, “Okay—you can be the only explorers in the Overworld.”
Charles looked at me. “Are we in agreement, William?”
I also nodded my head. “Yes, we’ll go home.”
They put down their swords, and Oliver and I walked away, headed toward our town.
As soon as we were safely out of sight, I said to Oliver, “Let’s make a left and explore. I hear there’s a large desert in this part of the Overworld.”
“But we promised Charles that we wouldn’t,” said Oliver.
“We can’t go back to our town. It’s our dream to explore. We can’t let Charles bully us and stop us from exploring. He doesn’t own the Overworld.”
Oliver thought about it and then nodded his head slowly. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s do this.” We turned left and began our trek toward the desert. We didn’t know our lives were about to change forever.
3
FINDING WILLIAM THE EXPLORER
What happened next?” Harriet asked Toby.
Toby put the journal down. “That was the end of the first entry. Would you like me to read more? It looks like the next entry is about Oliver.” He scanned the pages. “I think Oliver goes—”
Jack cut him off. “Don’t tell us anything unless you’re going to read the entire entry. We want to know everything. Don’t just read excerpts.”
“Okay, I’ll keep reading.” Toby opened the book, but before he could read the first word aloud, they were interrupted by an army of skeletons entering the abandoned mineshaft.
“We have to get out of here!” Harriet shouted as she shot an arrow toward the bony beasts pouring into the mineshaft.
“It must be night!” Toby called out. “And we never built a shelter. This is awful.”
Jack splashed potions on the skeletons, which weakened the hostile mobs. Harriet ran toward them and attacked with her diamond sword. The wobbly skeletons began to fall. “I think we’re going to win this battle!” she shouted.
“Not so fast!” Toby shouted. A new horde of zombies lumbered toward the group.
Jack kept throwing potions, but the zombies were persistent. One zombie walked over to the journal.
“Stop him!” Harriet shouted to Toby as she fought off the monsters that surrounded her.
Toby lunged at the zombie and destroyed him with one blow from his enchanted diamond sword. He picked up the journal and placed it in his inventory.
“The journal is safe,” Toby shouted to
the group.
“But we’re not!” Jack cried as he battled the exhausting mobs. Two creepers floated in and exploded by the skeletons. Things were getting out of control.
Toby raced to Jack’s side and helped him battle the zombie and skeleton invasion. Jack had just destroyed one last particularly vicious skeleton when he realized he couldn’t see Harriet in the mineshaft. “Harriet?” he called out nervously. He was worried his friend had been destroyed.
“I’m here,” her voice called back.
Jack couldn’t see Harriet anywhere. “Where? Where are you?”
Her voice grew louder. “I’m right behind you.”
Jack turned around, but there was still nothing but empty mineshaft. “Where?”
Harriet tapped him on the shoulder. “Guys, you should drink a potion of invisibility. Then we can sprint out the exit and get to safety.”
Jack grabbed a potion of invisibility from his inventory and handed it to Toby. The two drank the potion and followed Harriet out of the mineshaft and into the night. They sprinted through the dark, and as they reached the jungle, their skins began to become visible.
“I can see you guys.” Jack stopped to catch his breath.
“And we can see you,” replied Harriet.
Jack spotted two Endermen walking toward them. “I think we should build a place to stay for the night. Quickly.”
Toby and Harriet agreed, and the group quickly constructed a crude structure to spend the night in, narrowly avoiding attack from the two Endermen carrying blocks. Once they were safely in their beds, Harriet started to think about the journal again. “Do you really believe reading the journal will lead us to William the Explorer?”
“Imagine if we find him. We’ll be famous!” exclaimed Jack.
“That’s not the reason to find him. If he’s missing, he might be in trouble—we could try to help him,” said Harriet.
“I think we should follow the journal and retrace his steps. I bet that will lead us to him,” said Toby.
“Wow, tracing the steps of the famed explorer. That does sound like fun,” said Harriet. “And we might be able to help him. Let’s do it!”
“I’ll read the next journal entry aloud, and we can try to figure out where he was in the Overworld,” said Toby. “Then we’ll plot our trip.” Toby took the tattered journal from his inventory.
Discoveries in the Overworld Page 1
