“And so Dean and Dad ventured onward towards the Colonies Of The Deep Dark to see what the giant cave called the Deep Dark had to offer,” Dean said, walking in front of Dad on the village path.
“Sounds epic,” Dad said.
Dean smiled.
It was a bit lumpy, a spot here that went up, another there that went down. There was a rickety stone bridge that went over a massive chasm, and they knew that somewhere down in that icky darkness was the stick-buying villager that they needed.
“So what are you thinking. Should we go chop a bunch of trees and then head down?” Dad asked. “Or should we go check it all out first, see what we are getting into?”
Dean stopped, and Dad stopped as well. Both of them thought about what might be down there. Dean thought about the frosty chill of the damp cavern system, how it might feel to go down so far.
Dad thought about the spiders, zombies and skeletons that might well patrol the way.
And both of them thought about how little they had in terms of fighting equipment and protection. Those swords sure would be useful to have about now.
“Let’s just go and check it out. We can get the trees later,” Dean said. Dad agreed and soon the two of them were on the trail down into the chasm. A simple sign marked the way. The two of them shared a look, and pushed forward, venturing deeper into the Deep Dark.
But turning a corner, they saw a spectacular sight.
There was a store with a sign that read, “Ye Olde Shop O’ Magic”. The door was wide open. From somewhere further down the trail, the two of them heard an eerie noise.
Dean and Dad looked inside. The was a gigantic book on a large table, but there was no Ye Olde Shop of Magic owner!
“Where is the owner?” Dad asked. He pointed around the corner and Dean peeked around it. There was a bed here. This wasn’t just a Ye Olde Shop O’ Magic. It was also a Ye Olde Home O’ Villager!
Dean stared at the bed, and then he laughed loudly.
“What is wrong with you?” asked Dad.
Dean kept laughing. “I know what happened!”
“No you don’t. No way. What happened?” Dad asked.
“It is like in the regular Minecraft that we play on the computer. Some of the Villagers are big dumb dummies. This one probably woke up, opened the door, then stepped off the ledge into spider-infested lava-covered doom!”
Dean kept laughing like a maniac, and Dad couldn’t help himself. He joined in.
“Yeah, that’s gotta be right. But oh wow does this shop look cool. I bet dummy here would have sold us something awesome.”
Dean nodded. “Well, I know it is a mod. But the thing about the enchanting table is that there isn’t a job for it. So I don’t know if this big dumb dummy actually sold anything. He probably just ran around making stupid noises and I bet he’s happier now that he’s dead.”
Dad cocked his head. “Yeah? Yeah, I guess. Alright. Let’s continue on our adventure!”
Dean and Dad continued down the path, taking stairs down deeper and deeper into the dirt. There were lava falls, and water falls, and Dad almost fell off a few times, the narrow path being both dangerous and frightening.
“Hey Dad? What was that sound?” Dean asked. They paused and listened to the darkness. It was the rolling of a minecart, somewhere deep in the bowels of the dungeon.
“Minecarts. I don’t know why, Dean, but that sound is scaring me. I feel like we are entering somewhere that’s very dangerous,” Dad said.
“Yeah, I know what you mean, Dad,” Dean said. “But on the plus side, I think it might also mean that we are close to the colonies.”
They moved further ahead, soon spotting a tell-tale block of manufactured wood.
This path had mineshafts!
And where there are mineshafts, there is usually ore. As if to answer the unsaid question, Dean started down the next set of stairs and saw ironblocks just waiting to be mined.
“Jack pot!” he yelled to his Dad, who had stopped behind him to examine the blocks from over Dean’s shoulder. “With enough of these bad boys I can have us armored and ready to fight in no time!”
Dad smiled. “And if we go into those mineshafts and manage to avoid the monsters, we can get more than a lot of iron. We can get gold too.”
“And wood!” Dean exclaimed.
“Absolutely,” Dad agreed. They went down the next set of steps voila, there was a platform to their right. One that lead into a long set of mine shafts.
“You’ve got the axe, but I’ve got the armor,” Dean said, looking down the passageway. “How about you give me the pickaxe and I dig while you chop the wooden supports and fight any monsters that come our way?”
Dad’s eyes widened, and he ran past Dean just as a sparking sound echoed through the mineshaft. Dean turned around and saw Dad chop back a creeper . . . one that had just been about to explode!
“Sorry, don’t mean to be rude. But this fellow here looked like he wanted to give you a bad day,” he said.
Dean nodded. “A monster headache too. I can’t imagine TNT to the head doing anything less.”
The two of them moved forward carefully. Dad chopped all the wood, while Dean mined all the coal, iron and gold that he could find. There wasn’t too much, really, and the expedition was a little disappointing. But they also found two mine carts.
With the carts in their inventory, Dean and Dad began to collect all of the rails. Later, when they knew the mod map better, they could set up a rail station and make traveling between important places an easy and fast endeavor.
After an hour of digging, chopping, and exploring, they had 896 sticks. It was time to finally finish the trip, visit the Colony of the Deep Dark, and go get some emeralds.
They headed down the stairs, going past another mineshaft before walking through a hole in the floor . . . and into a massive cavern. It extended as far as their eyes could see, and even though it was very dark, they could sense a multitude of evil beings milling about within it.
That was not a safe place to be.
But as impressive as the size and danger of the cavern was, the actual city was something out of legend. Stone walls of villager construction extended from the very bottom of the cavern floor to join completely with the roof of the cavern, leaving monsters zero room through which to squeeze in and kill villagers.
The doors were iron, and only openable to those who had the intelligence, and know-how, by which to find their buttons and push them in. Pushing on the button would open the door for 5 seconds, before forcing the door to slam shut once again.
It was the perfect way to keep dummy villagers alive and safe.
The place was beautiful as well. Giant, torchlit windows were placed all around the wall, giving those within a powerful look at the caverns beyond.
“You know, Dean, in the real world I don’t think giant blocks of glass in the defensive wall are a good idea,” Dad said. “But here in Minecraft, well, I can’t think of a better way that this city wall could have been built.”
Dean nodded. “Yeah. And I was expecting this all to be cold. And dank. Instead, with the lava here, it feels just right.”
Now that they were here, the two of them stood before the door in, staring at its button nervously. It was dangerous out on the staircase and on the path, for sure. But they hadn’t seen any villagers yet, couldn’t see any villagers through the windowblocks on the wall, and this whole game was a mod. Who knew what sort of trap might have been laid for the by Brian Blacksmith, waiting just inside this place.
“Hey Dean, if we go inside here and there isn’t a button on the other side, will we be trapped?” Dad asked.
Dean sighed. “Nah. We can just break some glass and get the heck out of here. This is scary and new, sure. But I think we’re going to be alright.”
Dean opened the door and Dad took the lead, walking down the stairs just a little at a time, watching warily. There were torches everywhere, and their setup along one side of the village reminded him of a wall of candles at a church.
And then they heard a voice.
“Welcome to the Colony of the Deep Dark, strangers. It’s been a while since we’ve had visitors. Stay a while and share some tales of the surface world.”
Dean and Dad looked over to see a group of villagers coming to greet them. All of them wore sturdy leather outfits, and protective headgear.
“It will be our pleasure,” Dad said, smiling at them all. The villagers clustered around as he and Dean told them the tale of their adventure so far.
Kids' GameLit, Fantasy and SciFi 
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