Chapter 184: Paul

Excerpt from the book “Mining” By Durell

Don’t need any prospector with this book in your hand, I assure you. Let me tell you about the world beneath our feet for a pittance of the price it cost me to write about it. Can’t price experience, I assure you.

Follow me as I take you on a historical tour through my past as a minor. Or give you extensive detail about the different minerals, ores, crystals, and plants deep beneath the surface. You would be surprised at what the world is hiding.

Mining is a noble profession, or so I believe. Sacrificing your body, toiling away in the dark, damp, smoky tunnels. Lit by lonely mushrooms and dodgy torches. I love it, and I am sure you do too if you are reading this. Or you’re obscenely bored.

Either way, I hope you enjoy my book. It cost me a significant amount of effort to write. Like having to learn how to write to write it. Oh, how I worked on writing this. Learning my verbs and sentence structure.

Now onto the meat of this book. Minerals. Specifically, the worlds ores and what they are, where to find them, and how to mine them. All are found within.

I’ve always found the blacks and yellows of the end somewhat peaceful. The silence, calm, not eerie. But today, the ally was deathly quiet, to a degree I found abnormal. You would rarely hear loud noises but environmental sounds were still a thing. Yet, today, it was utterly silent.

Taking a half step closer to Paul, “a bit quiet today, hu?”

“A tad.” He says, unconcerned. Lazily turning corners without checking the shadows.

Shrugging off my paranoia, if Paul can walk around so confident, it can’t be that bad. Or so I was thinking at the moment those shadows moved. As they peeled away from the yellow walls, camouflage fell away to reveal long and thin frames; Endermen.

Paul, having spotted them, immediately falls into a wide stance. Without words, they rush towards Paul, 3 in total.

Paul strikes first, sidestepping to the left and attempting to hit the first enderman in the torso. It was a near miss, allowing the same enderman to strike towards Pauls’s head. Right before it crashed, though, he teleported behind the enderman and hit him at the back of the head. The enderman dropped like a sack of spuds.

He turned around, facing the other 2 assailants who were both striking towards him. One with a leg strike to his hip and another striking towards his throat. He attempted to teleport, but the purple particles flickered out of existence. He dropped low, avoiding the throat strike but taking a nasty kick to the side.

He was flung away towards the wall, rolling before getting to his feet with the momentum. I rush towards him, readying my power staff, but he holds up his hand in a stop motion.

Standing with confidence, cradling his side slightly, he steps towards the assailants rushing towards him. Quick as a flash, he drops low and kicks the one on the right before ducking and punching the one on the left.

Pressing his advantage, he rushes the enderman; he just punched, grappling his torso with his legs and snapping his neck with a wet crack. The final enderman teleported away quickly after that.

Standing up, Paul walked over to each corpse and held his hand over their head. Absorbing the charges from their body.

Walking to his side, avoiding looking at the bodies, I ask him. “Why did they attack you? And why did you stop me from helping?”

He finishes absorbing the charges; it didn’t take long; they were poor. Stepping over them, “rival clan. Can’t av any elp or my rep would be destroyed.”

“I see,” I say quietly.

We walk in silence for a while before coming to a small bar. It was nestled between some purple storage crates. Just a handful of stools and a lean and tall enderman operating the bar. He seemed a hair taller than other enderman I’ve seen.

Sitting on the stools, Paul speaks. “2 shots ah fire.” To which the barman grabs a light brown liquid from the middle shelf. He has 3 shelves behind him with a varying range of mundane and fantastical-looking beverages. All scribbled in gibberish.

“Shots? You have shots here?”

He just looks at me with a goofy smile, “of caus.” Letting out a slight giggle.

The barman pours the drink into 2 glasses, small but not shot small. Perhaps twice the size of what I would consider a shot on earth.

Paul picks it up, “cheers,” he says. Holding his glass up for me to clink against.

I cheer him and then watch as he slams the drink back with great force. Letting out an appreciative breath of air. Hesitantly, I do the same.

Like its name would imply, it’s firey. The intense taste of alcohol mixed with an almost cinnamon flavor. Followed by the spiciness of a vindaloo. It was nice until the burning sensation made me feel quite poorly.

“Another?” Paul asks with a dangerous tone.

“Something more mellow,” I say, meeting his challenge.

He rolls his eyes slightly, “Give us 2 Citra beers.”

This time the barman reached under the counter and pulled out two foaming glasses of light brown beer. Lemon flavored and very refreshing. We polish off the pints quickly before leaving the bar in a jolly mood. I enjoy the sensation of being drunk; I don’t experience it often after all.

With a slightly less steady gate, we wander over to a nearby park. Or that’s the best name for the yellow flatland with a bench in the middle. Sitting and relaxing.

Turning to Paul, “do you ever get tired of having to look over your shoulder? You seem to be quite the target.”

He shrugs, “It doesn’t bother me. Why worry bout those that ar no threat to me? Doubt there’s more than a handful that can beat meh in a fight.”

“Very confident, hu?” Turning my head back to the rather dull scenery.

He nods.

“Want to go do something?”

“Like what?” He asks.

“I don’t know; want to see something cool?”

“Alright, let’s go.”

And that is what brought me to that strange hole in the world. Once we entered the no teleport zone, Paul’s demeanor changed massively. From bubbly to on guard and shivering.

He steps back, looking at me. “What is this place? I can’t teleport!” He says with a hint of fear.

“So you can’t either,” I say absentmindedly.

Paul clearly trusted me because he continued along the path with me. Until the suction dragged us through the black hole. And just like that, we are in that strange space of portals.

With slightly shaky hands, Paul looks through the window into the abyss. Curiosity was written on his face. “Where are we?” He simply asks.

“I have no idea,” I reply honestly.

He brings his hand to his head in a murmur, eyes darting around. At least the resident dimensional being is just as confused as me.

He snaps his head towards me, “I see you av made yeself at home in this strange place.”

“I was trapped here for a short while. Got to make it homely.”

“Howd ya get trapped?”

“Try leaving through that portal,” I say with a laugh.

He does and quickly finds out about the repulsive effect. Browse furrowing as he tries to brute force his way through. Leaving furrows in the ground as he’s pushed away.

He shoots me with a glare as I snigger at his attempts.

Walking forward, I show him how my power suit can beat the repulsive force.

“No fair,” he complains.

“All is fair in love and war,” I say in a sing-song voice.

He rolls his eyes, “well, how am I to leave now?”

Walking over, I pick him up and walk him towards the portal. Setting him down only after he is outside of the suction.

“How was the g-force?” I ask him. Hoping the force on his body wasn’t too much.

He sat up straight, cracking his back. “Wasn’t fun.”

“Well, you’re alive; I’ll call that a win.”

“Rude.”

“Anyway, while you’re here, want to chill on my island. I can make us some food.”

“Don’t see why not.”

The alcohol had worn off; making some food was no challenge. Made some garlic steaks for us. Which we polished off quickly before chilling in the garden.

I take the chance to check my phone and message the mayor. He disappeared with the teleport, and I don’t even know if he is in the phone range. Just a short, “how are you and where are you?”

Should have done it far earlier, but if there is anyone who will be fine on their own, it’s him.

“So…. Can you craft?”

“Yeah.”

“Gonna make anything?”

“Dunno.”

“I wonder if that’s going to be a common mindset. On par with I can’t be bothered potentially.”

“Humans weird,” Paul says with a smirk.

“We are also assholes,” causing a smile to break out on pauls face. “You should start crafting. A lot of things would be of value to you.”

“And where am I to gather the materials?” He questions.

“From me, if you like. I have plenty.” Pointing towards my resource farms within view.

“” But tat is yours.”

“I have plenty; take what you need.”

“Okay, when I need, I will.”

He left shortly after, returning home. Allowing me to drag my exhausted ass to my room. Get a lovely shower, do some light reading, and then pass out on my pillow. Watching as the bed disappeared as I closed my eyes. I hoped for sweet dreams. The chance of me having them? Relatively low. The minor amount of mental trauma I have suffered has already made sleep difficult. Might be worth investing in thaumcraft anti-madness soap.