Minecraft: Journey to the Ancient City/1CHP
Chapter 1: Opal
From Opal’s POV, she feels as if she had finally “done it all”, having journeyed across the world, went deep underground, went up to the clouds, traveled farther into the Nether than nearly anyone she had met, and even defeated the Ender Dragon, in which most people didn’t believe her until she brought back proof that it was killed. In the present day, Opal is in her house putting the finishing touches on a door contraption made with sticky pistons, and decorated with gilded blackstone, deepslate, and gold and copper blocks that, when closed, form the shape of the ender dragon that Opal had killed. As she flicks the lever, Lisa, Opal’s sister, comments about the contraption, saying that enough blocks had moved so they could get inside their house when necessary. Opal is in disbelief as only half of the contraption worked properly, and decides to inspect further. She thinks that the redstone wire is the problem, as dust is scattered across some of the blocks, and also thinks she attached too many pistons as they probably moved some blocks that had redstone on them.
Lisa, looking up at Opal, wonders if she’ll be at this all night, but Opal thinks she needs more redstone. Lisa begins to wonder if they need to go mining tonight, but Opal disagrees, adding that she’ll go mining in a day or two, will only mine during the day, and will plan to redo the redstone tonight. Lisa offers to help, but Opal politely refuses. Lisa pouts, saying to Opal that she acts like she is asking to go deep underground, but Opal says that if she asked that, she would think she was joking, but Lisa insists that she always refuses her help with things and starts to bring up the ancient city, but Opal snaps at hearing about it, saying to the reader that her heart starts beating fast whenever the words are brought up together. Lisa puts up her hands and sheepishly apologizes, but Opal apologizes back, going back to the door, knowing that she herself messed it up and not Lisa. Opal then decides to put a wood door up instead for the night and plans to trade with a villager for some food tomorrow. Lisa agrees, adding that it sounds like fun, with Opal thinking to herself that it is more fun than thinking about a broken door or an ancient city.
Chapter 2: Lisa
Switching to Lisa’s POV, she says to the reader that the best part of going to the village is meeting up with the blacksmith, adding that’s she hears the sound of the grindstone and the feel of the heat from the furnace when she closes her eyes, imagining it as if she is fighting in a cave, but when she opens her eyes, it is instead the villagers milling around a sunset. Lisa loves every villager except for the one she calls “Old Man Pete”, saying that his bad breath is her scariest enemy. Nonetheless, she admires Opal chattering with the villagers on everything that had been up to. Lisa then says to the reader that when Opal defeated the Ender Dragon, she brought back the dragon’s head to use for a statue, and the villagers made that as well as a large fountain in the middle of the square. The statue was made of actual diamond that was mined by Opal, but Lisa thinks that the statue looks off to her because of the pose and expression, muttering to herself that she would need one good adventure for someone to build a statue of her. Just then, Opal shouts at Lisa, making her turn toward her, expecting her to carry some purchases that she had made, but instead the purchases were scattered on the ground, as a dozen zombified piglins go after them and everyone in the village. Lisa takes a few steps back, but stumbles at the fountain, splashing into the water as Opal attempts to reach out her hand. Opal then yanks Lisa out of the fountain just as the zombified piglins close in on them. She shouts at her to go to the weaponsmith and grab anything, and Lisa does so, banging on the door as hard as she could. The weaponsmith inside shouts at her to leave them alone, and Lisa decides to go around back, being unable to break the door down. At the outdoor forge, she decides to take an iron pickaxe and an iron sword just as a piglin approaches her. Lisa swings the tools wildly, attacking it and eventually killing it. She then runs back to Opal, who asks her to toss the pickaxe. She obliges without hesitation, and then notices Opal climbing the statue of herself to take the diamond sword out of the statue.
Chapter 3: Opal
Switching to Opal’s POV, she is mining the stone out of the statue holding the diamond sword in place as the zombified piglins try to reach her. Fortunately, she is able to obtain the diamond sword, killing off the rest of the piglins. As the villagers poke their heads out to check that it is safe, a lone piglin attempts to attack Lisa, but Opal shoves her out of the way to attack the piglin and kill it. Another piglin attempts to attack Opal, but is killed with a show of an arrow courtesy of Braun, who introduces himself to her. Braun is seen wearing a diamond chestplate, an iron helmet and iron leggings, and normal wear-and-tear boots, making him look like an adventurer in the eyes of Opal. She asks him as to where the zombified piglins are coming from, and he starts to think it over.
Chapter 4: Lisa
Switching to Lisa’s POV, she and Opal start cleaning up the village as best they can, but by then, the sun was setting once more as most of the villagers just wanted to close up shop and start the cleaning tomorrow. As Lisa finishes putting torches up on the flat roof of a villager’s house, she starts asking Braun as to where he is from. He says that he stopped staying at one place a while ago, and usually walks down areas that don’t have roads. He then asks Lisa if she and Opal are from here, and Lisa says that they are. Braun begins to ask about their extended family, but he waits for Lisa to get off the roof before she answers. She says that her aunt lives on the other side of town, but doesn’t like to stay in one place for very long, unless Opal decides to do so. Opal then meets up with the two, and Lisa says that she was about to ask Braun about the nether portal, but Opal insists that they talk about it outside the village so no one finds out where it is, adding that she thinks that Braun came here through the portal. Braun, at first, admits that he didn’t do so, but Opal doubles down, knowing that the piglins needed to chase someone through the portal for them to be here in the first place. She then reiterates to Braun that he can discuss about the portal when they leave the village. Lisa then asks him if he would like to come over to their house for dinner, and Braun happily agrees. On the way there, the three talk about Opal’s previous adventures.
The three soon arrive at the house, with the ground floor consisting of wide floors with a patio out front, columns of polished deepslate, and cherry wood. Connected to the house is a farm with various animals, cherry blossom trees, dark oak saplings, and a small pond filled with salmon and cod. Lisa admits to Braun apologetically that the pond isn’t as organized as the rest of the farm as she isn’t good at carving stone or crafting as Opal is, but Braun says that he thinks it looks pretty nice, noting a slab higher than the rest of the pond, which Lisa says to the reader that it was an "accent piece" that she was too stubborn to remove, eventually telling Opal that she placed it like that on purpose. Lisa then says to Braun that they should head inside and check out the museum before dinner, and the two do just that. Inside, the house has three floors under ground level, which Opal decided to do so because an abandoned mine was nearby, blocked off with iron bars and iron doors. Most of the pathways form the mine are well lit to avoid hostile mobs spawning, and one pathway was turned into a furnace room, stacked with regular furnaces and blast furnaces; a room to the side of the furnace room is filled with rails and minecarts to keep coal moving between furnaces. Braun, in amazement, asks Lisa if she had built that. She starts to say that Opal did, but corrects herself and says that she helped put it together, adding to Braun that she thinks that this stuff would be boring to him. Braun shakes his head no, exclaiming that this is why he explores: to see what others have built. Lisa then goes through some chests and finds an armor stand for Braun to put his armor on. She then goes back through the chests to find some water bottles as Braun takes off his armor, placing it on the armor stand. She then turns back to Braun with a water bottle, but he is already drinking a bucket of milk. Lisa says to herself that she feels silly for offering a water bottle to him, knowing that adventurers like him travel on their own.
Chapter 5: Opal
Switching to Opal’s POV, she decides to let Lisa and Braun talk amongst themselves for the first half of dinner, as she had made more food for them than she normally would have. When they finish, Opal decides to ask about the zombified piglins, knowing that Braun had showed up with them, although she did admit that it could have just been a coincidence. As Braun doesn’t answer right away, Opal quickly changes the subject to the time she had been to an ocean monument, mentioning that she had been distracted by prismarine and gold and the way that light hits both blocks. Braun then says that he isn’t really into the decorative blocks, and is instead more into the treasure and the hostile mobs within them. Opal then mentions about the guardians and how to had to use a potion of water breathing to escape, in addition to the drowned that started coming after her, which led her to hunt for them for the next couple of nights afterward. Lisa mentions that Opal got a trident before Opal interrupts her and asks Braun if the piglins followed him after he fought some of them. Braun sheepishly admits that he would never run into a town, and says that he was tracking them. Opal asks as to where he was tracking them from, and he brings up the Nether portal that was formerly destroyed, adding that he was aware enough of it and was surprised to see it active, soon noticing zombified piglins coming out of it. Braun concludes that the portal might have been activated from in the Nether by some piglins, which led to where he is now. The three then finish dinner, with Lisa preparing Braun to show him her and Opal’s museum, with Braun agreeing to show Lisa his weapons and tools acquired from his travels tomorrow. As Opal takes the dishes to the kitchen, passing by the stairs, she overhears Lisa asking Braun about his favorite thing from his adventures, with him saying that it was a sword he broke while fighting a warden in an ancient city. The mention of the ancient city causes Opal to drop the bowls she was carrying, as bread crumbs and stew scatter at her feet.
Chapter 6: Lisa
Switching to Lisa’s POV, she shows Braun around Opal’s museum, which Lisa says is the best part of their house. The floor of the museum is made of birch planks with walls of chiseled quartz surrounding it, including decorative columns of quartz alternating between blank walls and stained-glass windows. The pedestals for each item are made of quartz pillar and topped with gold or prismarine, and a sign underneath each item to label it. Braun walks a slow circle around the room to take it all in before he notices a shulker box labeled for a conduit to be built, causing him to laugh. As Braun notices Opal’s trident, he asks Lisa if it was indeed from when she went to the ocean monument, and Lisa nods in agreement, adding that everything in the museum is from one of her adventures, and that her adventure in the ocean monument is one of the reasons that she started to collect things from her adventures The two then move to a display of an enchanted golden apple, with Lisa explaining to Braun that Opal got it from a woodland mansion, adding that Opal didn’t want to kill off the illagers that were there because of the possibility of them taking revenge for it out on villagers.
Lisa adds that Opal is always hoarding items, such as a nether star she got from killing the wither. Braun concurs, knowing that killing another wither wouldn’t be easier for her. Lisa then gestures toward the shulker chest, saying to Braun that Opal wouldn’t want to get another heart of the sea, nor follow the buried treasure maps she has, before saying that the ancient city she went to was her last adventure, not bringing back a single thing from it as she was afraid of the warden, adding that she left with a full set of netherite armor and came back with iron armor. Lisa adds that she believes that Opal dropped a lot of treasure to get out of the ancient city safely, and she refuses to tell Lisa what she had dropped. Braun suggests that Opal is happier staying at home, but Lisa says that because of it, she’ll never teach her about being an adventurer. Just then, a plan hatches in her mind, suggesting Braun to destroy the Nether portal that was rebuilt. Braun is hesitant at first, as he doesn’t want Lisa put in danger, but he quickly gives in and agrees to help her.
Chapter 7: Opal
Switching to Opal’s POV, she wakes up the next morning after experiencing a nightmare involving the ancient city, heading downstairs to check on Lisa and Braun, but they aren’t there. Opal then notices some apples and a bucket of milk on the table in the kitchen, along with a note left by Lisa regarding where the portal is. Frustrated, Opal runs out of the kitchen and heads to her museum, surprised to see that a majority of it is intact, but notices that Lisa took some gold armor, a shield, and a diamond sword. Opal then takes out her set of netherite armor and takes Pearl, her white horse, over to the nether portal, noticing Lisa nearby, but she barely could make out her face. Opal then goes through the portal, followed by Lisa and Braun.