Okay I may have crossed the line with late updates.

Hehe

K bye

PS there shouldn't be many mitsakes, but idk if it makes sense tbh

•    •    •

~ Sky ~

Amber was pretty excited. She said it was an excellent find for my first time in the mine. So if she was happy, I was happy.

She mined the blocks in front of us so we could get closer in. Luckily, the tunnel we made led to a small stone platform.

"This is golden." I patted gold ore, grinning.

She sighed. "That was horrible. I'm just going to ignore that and place a furnace and crafting table down. You should probably get an iron pick."

As the iron smelted in the furnace, Amber made a bucket. She picked up water that was leaking from a stream to our left. She then poured it on the lava, creating an obsidian platform.

"We can get across using this. But it won't be as light, so we'll need torches."

"I got it covered." I pulled out the sticks that I had crafted from the tree before. I placed them and some coal in the crafting table, and made some torches. I placed them down on the platform. "Tada!"

Amber nodded. "Good job." She tossed down another bucket. "Look around for diamonds. If we're down here, we may as well go big."

"Will we be back in time?" I asked. Something told me that upsetting Ms. Rose wouldn't be good.

"Time isn't a problem." She said.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Alright then."

For the next 20 minutes, we went around the cave mining materials. At one point, Amber found diamonds hiding behind a wall. She was really excited, but she said they were mine since I found the cave. However, since there were four, I gave her half so we could each have a diamond sword. Or diamond hoes. I don't know what she's into.

We didn't smelt all the iron and gold we found since it would take a while. Amber broke the furnace, but left the crafting table just in case.

After a little bit, I was mining gold when I heard her call me.

"Sky! We should probably head up." She said from the other side.

"Okay!" I shouted back. I broke the last piece of iron, and walked over to our starting stone platform.

When Amber met up with me, she huffed. "That was a lot of stuff."

I nodded. "Not bad for my first mining trip, right?"

She laughed, and went over to the crafting table. She took a few seconds to make a diamond sword. After it was created, she swung it once. "Nice."

I followed her lead and made my own. It was a great upgrade from the wood sword I had before.

"Shall we leave now?" I asked Amber.

She replied with a smile, "We shall."

•    •    •

I had not thought Ms. Rose was actually being serious about making me work for the rest of the day. Ha, I was wrong to think like that.

As soon as I got back to her house, she gave me a piece of paper.

"What's this?" I said as I skimmed it.

"Chore list." She said as she cleaned a flowerpot. "How did your little visit go?"

"Good." I said slowly, wondering why she asked. "We went mining. Found this really cool cave. I got a diamond sword. So did Amber."

"Interesting..." She mused. Although because she seemed fixed on the book cover she was looking at, I wasn't so sure she was listening. "Well, get to work."

I looked at the list. Organize the books. Feed Bertha. Smelt the ores you got from the mining tr... what?

"How did you know I was on a mining trip before I told you?" I asked her.

She laughed. "Dear, I'm not weak-minded. I know you wanted a better sword, and I knew Amber loves to go mining."

"You're pretty sm—"

"Smart? Yes, yes I am. Plus I saw you two walk by earlier to the mines." She walked into the kitchen.

I took a step forward and opened my mouth to respond, but shrugged and let it go. "How do you want me to organize the books? And which books?" I looked at all the bookshelves.

"Organize the names of the authors in alphabetical order. Also, all of them." She called.

I looked at all the books. Then, I sighed, and got to work.

That took up a larger portion of time than I thought. Then I had to feed  Bertha, which is scarier than it sounds. I swear the chicken wanted to bite my hand off. Afterward, I got permission from Ms. Rose to put my ores in the furnaces so I could smelt them. She said that after they were all done, I could either keep all the valuables, or give them all or some away to the blacksmith. I decided immediately to give most away.

I had just put the last remaining ores in when I heard a knock on the door.

Brad was outside. "Hi Sky." He greeted me.

"Hey Brad. What's up?" I motioned for him to go inside.

"Nothing much. And I'll be here only for a second." He said, declining my offer politely. "I actually came to see how you were doing. I heard you and Amber went to the mines?"

"I guess nothing can be kept a secret here." I laughed.

"Was it supposed to be one? Cause Carl is such a gossiper."

"Not at all. We just went down to get me a sword, but we stumbled upon this huge cave. We got a lot of ores, and now both of us have diamond sword." I pulled out mine.

He whistled. "Nice. You two got lucky."

I chuckled, and put my sword away. "Yeah, we did."

"Well that's good. Glad you're getting along. Adapting. I also came by to tell you about the party tomorrow."

"Party?" I raised an eyebrow.

He nodded. "Yep. Every time we get a newcomer, we just have a small gathering. But since everyone's curious about you..." He shrugged. "It became a bigger deal."

"A gathering..." I repeated. Really? "Why would you have a party just for me?"

He shrugged, smiling. "We always welcome new people. But we have parties all the time, so don't feel like you're shoved into the spotlight." He whispered the last sentence.

I thought about it. Then, I smiled as well. "That sounds great. It's tomorrow?"

"Yep. You'll know when it starts. Anyway, I gotta run. See you!" He walked away.

I shut the door. A party would be great.

•    •    •

~ Cole ~

I went into the house with a different reaction than before. Which is probably because I wasn't being chased like before.

I averted my eyes away from the heads on the wall, and turned my gaze everywhere else. It was weird that the guy settled down, actually. Most murderers or assassins didn't stay in one place, in case they would be caught, and so they could be close to new targets. This guy must've been something special.

I didn't know where to start or what to do. Should I make it a temporary home? Leave the day after? That seemed the best option; I couldn't leave then, since it was getting dark and mobs were coming out (even if I had armor, it was risky). The other choice would be living in the house, but I really wasn't going to do that. I needed to rest up, maybe have a meal, and find a map. If I found out where I was, I could find my home and go back to my normal life. Pretend that this never happened and move on.

Since I knew where the kitchen was (from the chase where the dude was trying to kill me), I walked over there. It felt really uncomfortable trying to make myself comfy in a dead man's house, but I was actually really hungry. I opened a chest and found a lot of meats such as chicken, pork chops, steak, even some mutton, and a little bit of rabbit. I pulled out a steak, and opened another chest. There were farm foods. I grabbed a potato, and moved on. There was really nothing else that I was in the mood for, so I went over to the dining room right next to the kitchen. It was small, for four people, but I still felt like it was a little much for a guy that lived alone. When I sat down, I immediately started eating. I should've guessed how hungry I was before- I literally went through hell. No, not high school. I did my time at that place and I have no regrets for leaving. I meant the Nether.

When I was finished eating, I got up and looked outside. It was officially night, and I saw a zombie about twenty blocks away. I walked up the stairs and into the hall. The doors had no signs to indicate what was beyond them, so I had to play a guessing game. I opened the first door on the right. It was a bathroom. Nice. The first door on the left was a sort of miscellaneous room. There was a small place for enchanting in the corner, a bunch of furnaces along the wall, crafting tables, anvils, and more. The next door on the left was the bedroom, with a double bed sleeping area, red carpeting, paintings, a desk, and of course an armor stand with diamond armor and a diamond sword. I went to the final door and discovered a balcony to the outside. It was surrounded by three walls, with an open roof and no wall in front of me. I could see a beach about eighty blocks away. The view was actually pretty cool.

I walked back to the bedroom. "Guess this is where I'll be sleeping." I muttered. Sleeping in a victim's bed. Not the best way to rest.

I didn't bother to go under the covers. I crawled over the blanket, and stared up at the ceiling. I tried to imagine that I was in my own bed, staring at my own wood ceiling. However, it didn't seem possible. So I just closed my eyes, and tried to think of something else.

After a while of tossing and turning, I finally managed to fall asleep.

•    •    •

In the morning, I instantly got to work.

When I woke up, I had a eureka moment (which usually happens when I am about to fall asleep, or just getting up). It kind of branched off the topic of the guy deciding to stay in one place. The house was very suitable for survival purposes, it seemed the guy had everything he needed right there. But I walked around the house- there was no farm that he could've gotten all the food from. There was no visible mine he could've gotten all the valuables from. Sure, he could've gotten everything from his victims. But there was also the possibility that he got resources from some sort of civilization. A town, or something that would've been useful in helping me with my map problem.

However, there was the problem of finding the town. Going off into a random direction wasn't a good idea, so I had to do some detective work and investigate the house.

Which led me to the other secret room.

I was in the bedroom again, looking through the bookshelves, when something caught my eye. There was a hopper next to the door. Now, it was good decoration, with a wood trapdoor on top so it just looked like some random piece of decor. But I was curious to why he would use a hopper. So I went over to it, and broke the trapdoor. It was immediately sucked up by the hopper, and a piston moved somewhere.

I jerked my head around to where the noise came from. It was under the bed. I walked over to the bed, and went around the sides. Sure enough, a hole opened on the left side, revealing a ladder going downward.

(Okay seriously I love underground secret rooms too much. And making people not what they seem. Maybe I should make Ms. Rose an assassin or something. Have Sky be secretly a lady. Amber has a torture chamber under her house. Cole is actually 40 years old.)

Sighing, I got the diamond sword from the armor stand and went down the ladder. I should've known better, but I just wanted to get the creepy stuff over with.

At the bottom was a stone brick corridor, with a left turn at the end about forty blocks away. It looked harmless, which made it very suspicious. I crept down the tunnel with caution, darting my eyes around for anything different. However, I wasn't looking at the ground. I felt something tug at my foot, and saw that I was stepping on a tripwire. I heard the moving of pistons in the walls. All of a sudden, dispensers appeared along the walls in random places, and started shooting arrows.

I deflected an arrow that was aiming for my head. I started instinctively running toward the other end, even though I was closer to the beginning. It was one of those things that heroes in stories accidentally do to continue the plot. Which was weird considering I wasn't a hero.

Finally, after doing some sick maneuvers and blocks, I made it beyond the point of dispensers. There was another tripwire that was in front of me. It probably shut off the dispensers.

"If I die because of this, I'm going to kill myself." I stepped on the string. The dispensers stopped shooting arrows, and they retracted into the walls. I exhaled, and turned around.

What was that all about? Was this guy using booby traps to guard something? If he was trying to protect something, it must've been good. The guy was a killer, he must've stumbled across something interesting when on one of his missions.

I decided to keep going. So I turned the corner, and stopped almost immediately. In front of me was a long parkour room with a door at the end. The whole thing was about eight blocks wide, fifty blocks long, and ten blocks higher. There were random stone blocks floating in the air, and stuck against the walls. There was nothing special, no ladders or slime blocks or anything, except the floor being made of uneven lava.

I smirked, and put away my sword. That was going to be easy.

I ran forward, and jumped on the first block. I used the momentum to get to the second one against the wall, and stopped before continuing to the third. The rest of the parkour was easy. There weren't even any four block jumps. This guy must've been a parkour noob.

At the other side, I dusted off my jacket, and continued. An iron door stood in my way. It had no lever or button to get to the other side. However, I had an iron pickaxe I had stolen before.

"Why are you so dumb." I shook my head as I broke the door.

I shouldn't have spoke so soon.

Instantly, a hole opened below me. As I fell, I grabbed the floor (which was over my head at that time) and held on tightly. Below me was a small pit of lava. Letting go was definitely fatal. After getting over the shock, I shifted my weight on my elbow and used it to push myself up. I crawled through the empty doorway and looked back at the trap, breathing heavily.

Okay, so he was smarter than what I gave him credit for.

After a few moments, I managed to stand up and look at the next room (which was the most interesting).

It was a training room. There was a one block wide lava moat, making the twenty by twenty stone area an island. There was a few fighting dummies, a target that could be shot from where I was, some weights for lifting, and more.

I raised my eyebrows. So this guy made booby traps so no one could get to his training room? Or were they not traps, but tests? It could've been the latter.

But if he made all of this, who knew what other secrets he held in his house.

•    •    •

I UPDATED ON A TUESDAY HAYYYYYYY
even though its the Tuesday the week after this was supposed to be updated BUT IT'S AN APPROVEMENT

WANNA KNOW WHY??

Okay I'll stop shouting.

But I got serious.

I wrote all of Cole's PoV on the computer away from my phone and all distractions in a timespan of one and a half hours. Shut up I know people could write 1600 words in less than an hour, but I am very impressed with myself. I am going to do this more often.

Oh yeah I need to ask questions.

What is going to happen at the party with Sky?
What is Cole going to do now that he found a training room? Is it going to sway anything even though I don't know why it would?

Credit to Tood for the training room ideaish. He doesn't deserve a @ tho.

Rock on, my little rebels.