The Quest: The Oasis, Book 10: An Old Foe



  The Quest: The Oasis, Book 10: An Old Foe

  Copyright 2016 Mark Mulle

  Author’s Note

  This short story is for your reading pleasure. The characters in this "Minecraft Adventure Series" such as Steve, Endermen or Herobrine...etc are based on the Minecraft Game coming from Minecraft ®/TM & © 2009-2013 Mojang / Notch

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  About the Author

  Other books by this Author

  Chapter One

  Steve logged into Minecraft and saw with relief that his house was still there. He knew it had been about six months since the last time he had to rebuild it and nothing had happened since then. Even so, he still felt nervous anytime he logged into his game. After losing his house twice, Steve really didn’t feel like building it yet again.

  But his house stood in front of him. This time, he had made it a bit smaller. Even though Steve was hoping that it would never be destroyed again, he had luck against him. So the house was only four rooms. Maybe if he went a year without it getting crushed, he would want to add onto it.

  Steve opened the door to his house and stepped inside. There was a fire roaring in the fireplace. He had decorated it with paintings and had some nice weapons he had crafted on display. Yeah, the place was smaller but it was also cozy.

  Steve went into his bedroom to get some equipment from his trunk. He was thinking about going out to the mountains and see if he could find a new cave to explore. As he rummaged around for his things, he heard the front door of his house open and close.

  Alarmed, Steve equipped his sword and shield. Slowly, he crept towards the living room. It was day time. Normally, that meant a hostile mob wouldn’t have just invited itself in his house.

  But Steve wasn’t a typical Minecraft user.

  He burst into his living room, prepared to fight. But then he stopped and sighed, lowering his sword.

  “Couldn’t you knock?” He demanded.

  His friend, Herobrine, shrugged, “Didn’t expect you’d come jumping in here fully armed.”

  Steve hadn’t seen Herobrine in a few months. After they had taken down the Scarlet Hero, and Beth in the Snow Labyrinth, things had been quiet. He was glad to see his friend but also a little nervous. If Herobrine was here, it must mean something was going on.

  “I have to be. After everything we have been through, how could I not be?” Steve said, sitting down in a chair.

  Herobrine had only grown more powerful in the months that had passed since the labyrinth. Steve was powerful as well but Herobrine seemed to be directly tied into the game code itself. Since he was, he could move around freely in the game, including sections Steve still hadn’t been in.

  “What brings you here?” Steve asked curiously.

  Herobrine leaned forward, “I’ve been tracking something down these last few months.”

  “What is it?”

  For the first time in a long time, a glimmer of excitement crossed Herobrine’s face as he said, “The Oasis.”

  Steve frowned, “The what?”

  “The Oasis.”Herobrine repeated as if saying it again would let Steve know what it was.

  “Buddy, you’re going to have to give me a little more information than that. I don’t know what the Oasis is.”

  “The Oasis is sort of like the Snow Labyrinth.”

  “Why in the world would I want to go to a place similar to that?” Steve asked, shuddering at the thought of the dreaded labyrinth.

  “It’s a place of legend in the game. I wasn’t even sure if it was real. But the power we use, we put it in the game but where does it go?” Herobrine asked.

  Steve frowned, “I just assumed it vanished.”

  But he was shaking his head, “No, no. Whenever we use power or modify anything in the game, the change doesn’t just vanish. The power we use has to sit in a server somewhere.”

  “So, this entire time we have been using powers, including when we fought Scarlet Hero and Beth, the residual power has been dumping into a server somewhere?”

  Herobrine nodded, “Yes, that’s right.”

  “And why do you want to go there?”

  “That source of power is going to build up over too long and could potentially explode into the game. If we allow our powers to explode into the rest of the servers, it could crash the entire Minecraft game.”

  “Why are you just telling me this now? This seems like it could be serious.”

  “With everything going on, I didn’t want you to be worrying about something we couldn’t do anything about. Our power has been dumping into the Oasis but I finally think I found its location.”

  “So, what? We’re going to go there and…”

  “We’re going to go there and destroy the Oasis. If we leak the power out safely, then we don’t have to worry about it building up and exploding.”

  “Sounds straight forward enough.” Steve said, “So I’m sure something will go wrong.”

  “Hey, it’ll be fine. What could go wrong?” Herobrine said, standing up.

  “Something, I’m sure.” Steve grumbled under his breath

  Chapter Two

  It took a few days for Herobrine and Steve to map out their journey to the Oasis. It involved server jumping which Steve had never done before. Herobrine was used to leaping across the game but Steve usually stuck close to home.

  The plan was simple – server jump to the Oasis which apparently would be brimming with power they had used over their time together in Minecraft. Herobrine and Steve would then connect to the energy and slowly leak it out into other servers in the game.

  “If this goes well, then we can do this every few months. That way we don’t have to worry about our power ruining the game.” Herobrine said as they got ready to leave.

  “Alright. Well, let’s do this.” Steve said.

  Together, they closed their eyes and felt out the world of Minecraft. The lines of code formed in front of Steve’s eyes. They moved through it swiftly although Herobrine took the lead. It felt like ages of sorting and moving through code. Finally, however, Herobrine connected to the Oasis server. Steve jumped onto the connection and then they were being pulled towards it.

  A few seconds later, Steve felt himself land on the ground of a new server. They landed on their feet and looked around.

  It was like Herobrine said it would be. All around them was a desert. But a short walk in front of them was a gorgeous oasis. There was a beautiful light blue pool of water that seemed to twinkle in the scalding hot sun. Long palm trees looked as if they were brushing against the sky.

  Steve had seen deserts before in Minecraft but there was something different about this one. The air seemed to be brimming with a dangerous energy. He couldn’t believe all their power had been dumped here.

  “Best to drain this power out slowly.”Herobrine said to him over his shoulder as he headed towards the oasis.

  Steve followed him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. In fact, if Steve couldn’t sense the energy, he never would have thought this place was odd at all.

  They soon reached the oasis. In the middle of the pool of water was what looked to be a shining orb. It was crackling with electricity which filled the pool with sparks.

  “Alright, I’m going to connect with that orb. I’m going to go into the game code so the electricity won’t affect me. Stay here on the shore and wait to connect to me when I pull you,
alright?” Herobrine explained.

  Steve nodded and then Herobrine disappeared. He could feel his friend connecting to the orb in the center of the pool and then reached out for him. Steve connected to Herobrine.

  Together, the two of them began to slowly leak the power out into other servers in the game. The process was slow going. There was a lot of energy that was built up. Dumping too much at once could cause a server to explode.

  After about an hour of this, Steve sensed something was going wrong. He was somehow losing his grip on the power and the server connection. He tried to tighten his grip on it but that just seemed to make it worse.

  Suddenly, Herobrine appeared in front of his eyes and went flying back. He smashed into Steve. They rolled along the sand and quickly scrambled to their feet.

  “What is going on?” Steve asked.

  “Someone else was waiting for us to connect!” Herobrine explained, “In another server, they were connected somehow. They’ve started dragging the power towards them!”

  “What?” He exclaimed, “How is that even possible?”

  “I don’t know but the entire Oasis is unstable now!”

  As if the oasis heard Herobrine, the ground shook underneath their feet. The water in the pool began to rise somehow, and flood over the sand. The two friends turned around and began to run although Steve wasn’t sure where they were going. There was nothing around for miles.

  “I told you something was going to go wrong!” Steve cried.

  Herobrine didn’t reply because there was a violent shaking along the sand covered ground. Steve lost his footing and hit the ground. Sand filled his mouth and he spat it out. The water in the pool was washing over the sand now. The wet sand was even harder to run across.

  Herobrine stopped to help Steve get up and went, “I can’t connect to any other server! We’re blocked somehow!”

  Somehow, in a sight that Steve had never seen before, there was a wave of sand coming towards them. It was mixed with the water and was humongous. It looked like a tidal wave. As it towered over them, Steve knew there was nowhere for them to run.

  “Get ready!” He shouted.

  Then the wave of sand crashed down upon them.

  Chapter Three

  The sand wave slammed down on Steve and Herobrine. It was a strange mix of both sand and water. But wet sand is impossible to walk through – forget swimming through it. Steve was swept along with the wave as he was torn apart from Herobrine.

  The entire server seemed to be imploding. As Steve flailed around in the wave, kicking his feet which did nothing in the thick sand, he could feel the server give one last violent shake and then it went still.

  Steve rolled out along the sand as the wave finally ended. Rolling on his back, he gasped for air and tried to get the sand out of his mouth and nose. It tasted disgusting. Then he looked around.

  He was somewhere in the middle of the desert. There was no sign of the Oasis. There was no sign of Herobrine either. He seemed to be completely alone. Steve got to his feet and called out for his friend. But there was no reply.

  “Wonderful,” Steve grumbled, “The server has shut down and we can’t get out of here. I can’t sense Herobrine. Someone sucked up power on another server. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. Of course.”

  He was going to call for Herobrine again when a pile of sand began to move. He turned around, hoping it was his friend.

  Naturally, it wasn’t.

  Skeletons rose out of the sand, bones rattling loudly. There were three of them and they were heading directly towards Steve. One had a bow and the other two had giant swords. He had never seen skeletons come out of sand like that before. It was worrisome to know that at any time these creatures were underneath them, ready to strike.

  The skeletons moved a bit slower than he was expecting. Steve assumed it was because they were carrying giant swords and were covered in sand. He was going to use this for his advantage.

  Equipping his shield and sword, Steve got ready for the attack. The archer fired a bow and Steve rolled out of the way, slicing his sword up through the air to attack one of the other skeletons.

  This skeleton took a step back, barely missing being struck. The second skeleton lunged, dragging its sword through the sand before raising it over its head. The massive sword glinted in the sunlight. The skeleton looked down at Steve. If it could have an expression, it would have looked almost victorious – it clearly thought it had got Steve trapped.

  But the sword slowed the skeleton down. Steve was faster and attacked quickly. The skeleton turned to sand in front of his eyes. At the same time, the archer let another arrow fire through the air.

  Steve barely deflected it in time with his shield. The skeleton remaining with the sword spun around and struck. Steve practically lost his footing and almost hit the ground. He stumbled and ducked just as an arrow soared over his head.

  He brought his sword up and deflected a hit from the skeleton. As the skeleton got ready to bring its sword down again, Steve hit it. The skeleton fell backwards and he brought his sword down, turning it to sand. The two skeletons with the large swords had turned into nothing but sand now. They were small piles in the desert.

  That just left the archer. As another arrow narrowly missed him, Steve took off at a run towards it. The skeleton was trying to notch another arrow in its bow when Steve took it down.

  Out of breath, he looked around. There were no more skeletons. He tried to reach out to Herobrine but it was as if he had been completely cut off from his ability to connect to the game.

  Trying not to panic, Steve attempted to gather his thoughts. They had been draining the power. Someone else took the power into another server and caused this one to implode. Who was doing something like that? They would have had to have been waiting for the two of them to come to the Oasis to drain it.

  Steve called out for Herobrine but knew he wasn’t going to get a reply. All he could do was start walking and hope he found his friend – and a way out of here.

  Chapter Four

  Steve walked for hours and nothing changed. He was truly lost in the desert. When he logged out of the game that night, he tried to think of what he could do differently. He knew when he logged back into the game that he would still be in the Oasis.

  So, instead of logging directly back in the next day, he called up Elena instead.

  “Long time no talk.” Elena said on the other line.

  That was true. After stopping Elena’s sister, Beth, from using the Snow Labyrinth against everyone in the game, the two had patched things up. Steve knew that Elena still played Minecraft but she was much more of a casual user than he was.

  Even so, he explained what happened in the game yesterday. When he finished, he could hear Elena smacking on her gum, lost in thought.

  “So you can’t use your little Minecraft magic?” She finally said.

  Steve sighed. No matter how often he tried to explain that Herobrine and himself didn’t do ‘Minecraft magic’, Elena always called it that. He had long since given up on correcting her.

  “Right, I can’t change the game or connect to any other server. I can’t find Herobrine either.”

  “Your friend gets lost a lot.”

  “Okay, the second time he got lost, it was because of your sister.” Steve argued.

  “Alright, alright. Point taken. What do you want me to do?”

  “You can modify the game a little, right?”

  “Yeah, whatever Beth did to my character stayed in place. I mean, I can’t do what Herobrine can do. Or you. But I can do a little.”

  “I need you to try to connect to the server and see if you can make a pathway for me to leave from. I’ll walk you through it on the phone.”

  Elena hesitated, “No offense, Steve, but all your power in Minecraft just seems to lead you to a lot of trouble. You said someone was connected to the game and used the power you were trying to get rid of. That means that someone is trying to b
e more powerful than you in Minecraft. Again.”

  “Sure it isn’t your sister?” Steve joked.

  “Yeah, she’s lost all interest in Minecraft since we patched things up,” She sighed, “Which I still owe you for. So I’ll help you out. But I have a bad feeling.”

  “You and me both.”

  ***

  Like Steve thought, when he logged back into Minecraft, he was still in the Oasis. Everything remained unchanged. The sand had dried out a little from the wave. Steve looked around. In the distance, he thought he could see the pool of water. He decided he’d go back there. It would be easier for Elena to connect to the server if she had some sort of landmark to go off of.

  Once he got back to the actual oasis, Steve realized the glowing orb was gone. They had dispelled the power like they had been hoping – but who had it now? Pushing the thought from his mind for now, Steve called up Elena. He walked her through the process to connect to the server.

  “Alright, I’m going to try to open an exit for you. What about Herobrine?”

  “I’m hoping he will sense the exit. If he doesn’t, then I can try to figure out a way to come back here and get him. But I need my abilities back to be useful.” Steve explained.

  “Here I go.” Elena said.

  Steve could instantly see the portal opening in the middle of the pool of water. Relief swept through him. It was working! He took a step towards it –

  And then Elena came flying through the portal. She landed with a splash in the water. Instantly, the portal closed behind her.

  On the phone, Elena said dryly, “Well. That didn’t work. What a surprise.”

  Steve ran over to her, helping her up and making sure she was okay. He heard Elena hang up in the phone. No point now since they could talk to each other in the game.

  She looked around and then crossed her arms, glaring at Steve, “Now what? I’m stuck here too.”

  “The person who took the energy must have something set up so that no one can leave this place,” Steve thought aloud, “They must have planned this out.”