"We need to make the shelter better," William said. "So no more zombies or eyeballs can get to us."

"Perhaps. But I think we should explore the world and see what we can find," Sid said. "There must be more than trees. I mean, those zombies and eyes must come from somewhere, right? If we find out where they're coming from, we could put a stop to them."

"You have a point. But," William shook his head, "What we need to do is play it safe. You can't just go rushing into danger. You almost got yourself killed last night when you rushed outside. I'm sure the door would've held. The Guide said so."

"The same Guide that voluntarily opened the door to let the freaking zombies in!" Sid said, his voice rising. "He might be full of information, but he's not one of us. He's not human like you and me."

Not human? "What do you mean? Andrew looks pretty human to me!"

"What I mean is..." Sid sighed. "Never mind. Look, he's got info, but he's dumb. You, me and Robyn... we've got each other. As long as we stick together, we can survive anything the world throws at us!"

William sighed. "Okay. I'm staying here, though."

Sid shrugged. "Your loss." He began walking away. "I'll be back."

William watched him go and sighed. He'd better not get himself killed. He turned back to the house and headed back inside.

Robyn's mining tunnel had gotten even deeper since the previous night. It went deep into the earth, a natural staircase carved out from mining the square blocks, every step of the way lit by torches. At that moment William could see her heading up the stairs towards him, some sort of orange stone was in her hand.

"I found copper ore!" she announced, smiling. She looked around the house. "Where's Sid?"

"He's... gone off exploring," William said.

She nodded, not appearing to care as much about Sid's safety as William, then turned to the Guide. "Andrew, what can you do with... copper ore?"

"Now that you have some ore," the Guide said, "You will need to turn it into a bar in order to make items with it. This requires a furnace!"

"A furnace?" Robyn narrowed her eyes. "How do you make that?"

"You can create a furnace out of torches, wood, and stone. Make sure you are standing near a workbench."

Robyn stepped over to the workbench and crafted a furnace. She set it up against the wall next to the mineshaft entrance. A wave of heat rushed out from the furnace.

"It's getting a little hot in here, with the furnace and campfire and everything..." William said, trying to pick at his pixelated clothes. It didn't seem to be possible to actually pull at your clothes in this world.

"Maybe you can make a new room and move the furnace in there?" Robyn asked. "You said you were planning on expanding the house."

"That's a good idea. I might do that. Make like a forge. Could make it out of stone blocks too, so it fits."

She nodded. "Okay. I'll turn the copper ore into bars."

She stood near the furnace, and a few seconds later she was waving six copper bars around the room.

"Okay, Andrew... can you tell me what you can make with these?"

She gave the bars to the Guide.

"Oh, wow. He's displaying a list of everything you can make with copper bars," she said.

"Yes," the Guide said. "That is one of my functions."

Functions? What a strange word. William was once again reminded of how Sid had said the Guide was not human.

Maybe he's right.

"Looks like you can make Copper Pickaxes and Axes," she said. "Though we've already got those. Not sure why you'd want to make more of them."

"Unless they wear out or something," William said, glancing at the pickaxe in his hand. It didn't seem to be showing any signs of wear and tear... yet.

"You can also make armour," Robyn continued, "And a watch... ooh, a bow... and an Amethyst Staff..." She paused. "Huh. Apparently there's two different types of swords. The shortswords we started with, and there's a broadsword that you can make. Which does more damage than our wooden swords."

"Huh," William said. "Then what's the point of the shortswords?"

Robyn shrugged as she took the copper bars away from the Guide. "Well, I've only got six bars. Enough to make a copper broadsword, but not much else."

"Even if you had more, you can't actually make most things with metal bars yet," Andrew said. "You will need an anvil."

"An anvil?" Robyn muttered.

"You mean like the things that always slam people on the head in old cartoons?" William asked.

Andrew did not seem to understand his comparison. Instead, he just said, "You will need iron bars in order to craft an anvil. Or you can purchase one from a merchant."

A merchant? William wasn't sure where they would find a merchant in this world. The world that seemed to be empty of life except for themselves. There were no other people or buildings anywhere else, at least not that he had seen. Just the Zombies, Slimes and those flying eyeballs.

Then again, we've barely moved far from where I woke up.

Maybe Sid is onto something with his exploring idea. There could be a town. Somewhere out there. Where we might be able to purchase an anvil.

Robyn held up her pickaxe.

"Well, I guess iron is the thing that I'm going to go find next," she said, then headed back underground.

William went digging with her for awhile, turning up lots of dirt and stone, but no more ores. At around midday he headed back up to the surface in order to expand on the house while Robyn kept digging.

He decided to focus on defence first, marking out a perimeter around the house using wooden planks, making sure to leave plenty of space for expansions. He then began erecting a wooden wall eight blocks tall on the perimeter, reinforcing it with stone. He crafted grey bricks out of stone at the furnace, thinking they'd probably be stronger than stone. They also looked nicer than the rough stone blocks.

While he was building the sun began to set, and Sid returned at around the same time. He looked different somehow – at first William thought he was wearing a hat on his head, then realised it was actually a nest with a bird in it, resting on his head.

What happened to him? Did that fall out of a tree?

"Heyyo, Willy!" Sid called.

William sighed. Inwardly he still felt a bit annoyed at Sid for almost getting them killed last night.

"I found loads of loot!" he went on. "Like, you see this finch on my head? I found a magic wand thingy that summons it! It attacks slimes and other bad guys, protecting me from danger!"

"Where did you find it?" William asked.

"In a giant tree," Sid said. "There was a way down to a basement in the tree that contained a chest."

A basement? A chest? "And... you thought taking everything there was the best thing to do?" William asked. "Did it look like someone lives there? What if that bird belongs to someone?"

Sid shrugged. "Well, nobody seemed to be home or around, not for a long time due to all the moss growing everywhere, so I thought, finders-keepers. Look, if it does turn out someone was there, I'll give it back. But that wasn't the only thing!" He took out a long, curved item and threw it up at William. He wasn't prepared for it, so the item actually ended up grazing his arm for 8 damage, almost knocking him off the wall. The item spun through the air as it returned to Sid's hand.

"Sorry," Sid said. "But it's a boomerang! Found that in a chest in a random cave. Almost certain nobody lived there. But look, now I can attack enemies from a distance like Robyn can, but without having to use up arrows! The boomerang and finch always come back!"

William groaned and rubbed where the boomerang had struck him.

"Did you at least find any iron?" he asked.

"Nope. Is there a way into the fort? That wall looks too tall to jump over. Good work on it Will – gotta keep those zombies out. Though... heheh... it's also keeping me out."

William shook his head. "No. Go work on your own instead of running around looking for treasure like a pirate."

Sid's face fell. He frowned. "Alright." He headed off, in the direction of the setting sun.