23 – Here, in the dark room, there be spawned monsters

Experimenting with mod spawns was going to be long and tedious, but it was a necessary thing to do before proceeding any further. Away from the floating island, he made a thin one-block bridge of cobblestone that led a short distance away.

At the end of the bridge he built the standard two-meter-tall dark room. He closed it with an iron door, remembering that in hardcore mode wooden doors were no longer safe, and walked away.

After he walked 24 meters, he saw that something had appeared inside the room. He walked back towards it, and peered through the door. Inside, there was no Minecraft mob he recognized, instead what he saw was a tiny slime and a small green manlet. A goblin, probably.

“Interesting.”

“What is?” Lumia, who was beside him, asked.

Jacob turned around, startled.

“How long have you been there?”

She chuckled. “I never went away. You’re cute when you get scared like this.”

“Oh. I guess I got too immersed in my own thing.”

“In any case, what’s interesting?”

He scratched his chin. “The fact is that normal spawn rules for the mobs are like in the game. I bet that if I walk far away these will de—no, they won’t. Will they?”

“Uh?” she cocked her head.

“Stay there, tell me if the monsters disappear.”

After saying so, he bolted away on another suspended bridge he built. He came back after a few minutes.

“So?”

“Still there, look.”

He looked inside. The monsters were the same, no more and no less than before.

“Dammit!” He punched the wall.

“What’s wrong, Jacob?”

“What’s wrong? I am wrong here. As long as I’m around, monsters will spawn all around me. And they won’t disappear when I’m away. This is different than the game, this is bad. I’m a liability to anyone.”

She looked at him pace around in desperation, and couldn’t suppress a giggle.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Dummy. It’s always been like this here, you know? Monsters spawn in the dark, it’s normal.”

“It… is? Uh, odd.” He said, and his face lit up. “Well, then. If this is the case, I can exploit this thing at my leisure! They do drop the right loot when I kill them using game mechanics, so it’s perfect.”

“What if you kill them normally?” Lumia wondered out loud.

“I guess they would do whatever they do normally? Which I have no idea what is, now that I think about it. Can you tell me?”

She looked startled for a moment. “Ah, they just die and leave behind their corpses. All monsters are useful, though. Even slimes, or goblins. They have cores inside that can be extracted and used for magic, while from other more powerful monsters you can also extract valuable parts and ingredients. It’s difficult to do it, so most adventurers just sell the whole corpse to the guild and just accept a lower pay.”

“Adventurers, guilds and monster parts. How nice.” He joked. “Well, okay. I’ll have to mix my killing methods, then.”

The sun was nearing the zenith, appearing to be right above at the apex of the sky. After having dismantled both the dark room and the two temporary cobblestone paths in the air, Jacob went back to the ring of grass that was the new home of the elves.

“Looks like they’re adjusting quickly!”

“They are,” said Tyla. “Thank you again for all you did for us.”

Jacob waved his hand. “It’s fine. Have you decided how you want to call this place? The home of the only tribe of Sky Elves in the world?”

“Yes!” She said ecstatic. “Avalon!”

Jacob’s face almost fell. He wanted to yell cliché, but instead only smiled to her. She seemed to accept it, and went away.

Jacob exhaled. All the elves were busy building their new houses, tending to newly planted gardens, and adjusting to the place. After a little while spent observing their comings and goings, Jacob finally decided to move from the little pedestal he had built for himself.

He took out a few saplings, and began to place them all around the central plaza and along the outer edge of the ring.

“Tell everyone to not touch the plants.” He said, after having noticed that Lumia was still following him.

“Okay! But why, if I may ask?”

“Game mechanics. They’ll grow pretty fast, unless you touch them and revert them back to normal growth rates.”

“Got it,” she said, and bolted away.

Jacob watched her go and smiled to himself, a strange sense of proudness and satisfaction. She was being quite clingy, but he didn’t mind it too much, at least as long as she wasn’t being a bother.

The saplings would grow into nice trees and add the little touch of green this floating island really needed, and all that was left to add now was a little waterfall using a Minecraft water source for infinite water. It would be fresh, so if he built the spring right it would also double as a source of drinking water for the whole village of Avalon.

“Gosh, that name…”

But, before he could even take out his crafting table to make a bucket, he heard a scream come from one of the gardens.

“Help!”