Steve had come back around and was beginning to stand up. He put his blocky hand to his head and moaned.
“Oh … ugh … oh, what happened?”
“Don’t give me that!” fumed Jayden. “You know perfectly well what happened. You know that you can’t be QPOed on the job! I’m running out of golden apples to heal you with. Apples don’t just grow on trees! Well, not in this game, anyway … but the point is, you’ve gotta be more responsible, Steve!”
“Hey, who are those guys?” asked Steve, who had not been listening to Jayden and was now looking distractedly at Stan and his friends.
Jayden looked furious and was about to yell at Steve again when G said, “Don’t, Jay, there’s no point. Steve, this is Stan, Charlie and Kat. Guys, this is CrazySteve1026, aka Steve.”
“Hey, noobs,” said Steve, disregarding the exasperated sigh of Stan and the smirk of Sally. “About tuh start da programme, I assume? Yes? Alrighty den, what can I help ya with, little brother?” asked Steve, turning back to Jayden.
“We just need some watermelons,” said Jayden. “Sal made some cake for breakfast but some of us are still …”
“Say no more, Jay,” said Steve. He then proceeded to walk over to the nearby watermelon field and bring his hoe down into two watermelons. They burst open, leaving a mess of watermelon slices in their places. He picked them up and walked over to the group of players, handing two slices to each of them.
“Man, dis shtuff ish good,” mumbled G.
“Yeah, you should make a watermelon cake next time, Sal,” boomed Archie.
“You’re welcome,” spat an annoyed Sally.
Once they finished their watermelon, Steve said, “Alrighty den, all fed? Good, den off ya kids go. Have fun at ya little programme. Be careful. Any more deaths and da King might shut da programme down.”
Charlie spat out his watermelon. “What?” he sputtered. “What’d you just say?” But Steve just laughed manically and went back to the farm to feed some wheat to the Mooshrooms. The seven players walked out of the farm feeling excited and, in Charlie’s case, petrified.
Stan, Kat and Charlie weren’t the only ones starting the programme. There were also five other people there, all boys under level five, all determined to learn how to play Minecraft. After a brief introduction to the other five, the group was divided in half. Four of the other players went with G to learn about mining and pickaxe fighting, and Stan, Kat, Charlie and one other boy who looked exactly like Stan in darker clothing went with Archie to learn archery.
Archie took them to the firing range. It was a long clearing located deep in the woods, away from people. Archie explained the proper technique of handling the bow. Stan and his friends listened intently, but the fourth player couldn’t focus. He just kept staring at Kat with his mouth open. It was apparent that he hadn’t expected to find any girls in Minecraft.
After the explanation of the theory, they started target practice. There were lamps located on the range at different distances and heights. Archie stood to the side as he flipped switches to turn the lamps on and off. The goal was to hit the lamp that was on. The only one who was OK at the archery was Kat. She managed to hit one lamp twice before it switched off. Stan hit one of the lamps every time he shot, but it took him time to think about the trajectory of the arrow and he hardly ever got a hit on a lit lamp because the lamp changed before he could fire his shot.
Charlie was abysmal. He only hit a lamp one time, though he was the one who shot the most arrows. His arrows usually landed a good distance away from the target. Once his arrow came dangerously close to impaling Archie in the chest, but Archie whipped out his sword and deflected it. The other boy on the range might have been a good archer, but he didn’t do anything because he still couldn’t stop staring at Kat.
After target practice, it was around three in the afternoon judging by Archie’s clock, and he said that it was time for the last activity of the day: sparring. The fighters were given diamond armour, which Archie told them had been enchanted to take all damage from the arrow fire without damaging the players themselves. Archie called the armour “training suits.” The players also were given a bow and a stack of arrows and told that the first one to score three hits with the arrows won.
The first match was Kat versus Stan. Stan knew who was going to win, and though he tried to fire as quickly as he could, Kat had won before he managed to sink a single arrow into her armour. The match lasted five minutes, and though Archie was hiding it well, they could tell that he was impatient by the time it was over.
The match between Charlie and the other boy was over in ten seconds, but that was mainly due to the fact that the boy couldn’t stop gaping at Kat for long enough to stop Charlie from actually walking to within one block of him and firing the three arrows into his chestplate at point-blank range. Archie proceeded to slap his own face with his blocky hand at this.
The match between Kat and Charlie lasted longer than the one between her and Stan, but that was mainly due to that fact that Charlie’s strategy consisted of running in an unpredictable pattern and not trying to shoot at all. The match stopped after Kat ran out of arrows. Archie then rolled his eyes, stood up, whipped out his bow, and proceeded to fire three arrows at the still-moving Charlie in a matter of seconds. All three arrows sunk themselves into Charlie’s headgear.
After a long day, Archie stood up, sighed, and said, “Let’s go.” It was clear from the tone of his voice that he didn’t think that any of them had a knack for archery. They all walked back to the motel to go to bed feeling slightly disappointed.
As everyone was getting ready for bed, Sally asked Stan as she pulled off her armour, “So, what did you think of your first day of training?”
“Well,” said Stan, “let’s just say I hope tomorrow is better, a lot better.” And they both laughed.
The next day was considerably more enjoyable by all accounts. After a breakfast of bread, the four new players followed G to the outskirts of the village and took a ride in some mine carts to the entrance of a large mine.
The upper mine was illuminated by torchlight, but Stan still couldn’t make out the sides. It was enormous. As they went further down, there were fewer torches, but Stan could now see dozens of players hacking away at the sides with pickaxes. Stan guessed that this was where all the good materials were.
The mine carts took them past several stops at different levels, and all the way down to the bottom of the mine. Down there, Stan saw a room constructed out of cobblestone, with torchlight inside. The four new players and G walked into the room, and G explained Mining 101 to them. He showed them how to distinguish the seven different types of ore: coal, iron, redstone, gold, lapis lazuli, emerald and diamond. Then he showed them which materials the pickaxes were good for mining and offered some basic mining safety tips: don’t dig straight down, watch out around gravel and sand, and so on.
Once they were done, G took them out of the cobblestone-block room, gave out stone pickaxes, and taught them how to fight with them. Once again the training suits were put on, and there was another tournament. To everyone’s surprise, the one who excelled fastest at pickaxe fighting was Charlie. They had to get three hits in on their opponent, and Charlie beat Stan in the first round and then Kat in the second round. Needless to say, Kat obliterated the other boy. The best moment was during Charlie’s fight against Kat. He was up by two points when Kat took a lunge at him. He fell back and threw his pickaxe through the air, knocking off her helmet.
They then started to mine. Stan did all right. Gravel only fell onto him once, and he got out of it pretty quickly. He also found some coal and iron ore, and even two blocks of lapis lazuli ore, which G said was a rare block used to make blue dye. Kat did about as well as him, not