Chapter 2: Am I the barbarian

Alive, I survived, obvious from an outside perspective but with the cusp of exhaustion from a sleepless night and the sharp edge of death hovering over me the entire night this feels, positively amazing.

I actually did not see any of the monsters aside from that monstrosity but from the sounds, it sounded very familiar, although I don’t know where they went. I couldn’t look for fear of attracting a monster's ire, but I am going to assume they have new mechanisms along with spawning since reality is a thing.

So with a deep breath, I look out of my hiding place, and; “Wow” is all I could say. Something breathtaking about actually being in Minecraft, it is nothing like the game, it's so real, untouched, beautiful. The view was so good I almost forgot I just became dino chow, now where did that nasty little thing run off to. Not to find it but to go in the opposite direction.

Jumping down from the tree with all the grace of a drunk ocelot I start exploring, wait I'm forgetting something. Ah yes punch a tree, do I really have to do it. Water first I'm dying of thirst. Feels like my mouth is stuffed full of cotton wool.

As I wander I try to go into dense ground vegetation which should lead to a water source in theory. Let's see if my YouTube survival skills are anything useful. As I walk I look around, I expected far more diversity in both trees, flora and the lot, given this world should include many mods I'm familiar with but it is strangely, vanilla. Yes, the purple trees are cool looking but the only thing I noticed is they are slightly harder than normal trees and have a lovely light purple inner wood shade. I know what I'm making my house with. I haven’t even seen a mystical flower and those things are positively everywhere normally.

That’s not to say the flora is not different at all, it is far more diverse with different lengths of grasses, small flowering plants like tulips, and other small clearly not modded plants. Like, where are all the magical plants. I believe I will definitely have to go mining and hunting for interesting ores but I have an inkling that this world is far more complex than otherwise anticipated. I hope you're happy Felix! No response, worth a try.

It may also be worth finding a high elevation point, to see if I can track down something interesting. The bread and butter of a lot of mods was exploration after all, but he wouldn’t make it that easy. I would place a bet an actual civilization needs to build them instead of just having naturally generated buildings. Doesn’t bode well for my grave robbing.

“Splash” Good news found water, bad news I was not watching where I was going. At least I'm no longer thirsty, although I need a clean source of water soon before I die from any of the millions of waterborne diseases. Now that I think about it, what's my body like? Red robe, abnormally pale skin... and the face; red eyes flat facial features. My skin, but morphed into a physical form. This is gonna get complicated if I meet a sentient species here.

Sure i'll find a mod to obscure my body or I'll need to invest in a body covering, are capes still in fashion? Yeah of course they are capes are always cool.

Now I could focus on food but I've put it off for long enough. Time to punch a tree. And as I wind up my fist and hit the tree it hurts, hurts a lot in fact. But the tree in a 1-meter square is visibly cracking. Nah, screw this I'm going to get wood somewhere else. I'll try again if I get desperate. Hey, would you punch a tree for a sick God's amusement!? Didn’t think so.

Talking to myself, not a good start for my psychological health. Get a pet on my to do list.

Anyway from what I recall a mod that exists called Mine Fantasy 2, I recall the starting steps at least. Just have to get creative until I make a crafting table. Step 1 sharp rock, step 2 vine, step 3 make an axe. Easier said than done but we have to start somewhere. Right so if I recall sharp rocks came from most common gravel. Since I am not crafting anything with a 2x2 grid any rock will do. So begins the search along the floor. And I searched, for ages, watching as the day shortened rapidly.

“How hard is it to find a stupid sharp rock!?”.

I've found many rocks, round rocks, square rocks, I even found a rock that looked like Felix’s face. Wait can't I just break a rock to make sharp rocks? A great idea. Suns not right above me yet so it's most likely about 10-11 am. Haven’t got a clock on me... I shouldn’t really need to clarify that I don’t even have a sharp rock. Back on topic. I begin searching for a large rock. Something that would break easily. Sediment layers in the rock would be ideal. Obsidian, flint and a few other minerals will work too.

Big rock, big rock, big rock; perfect! A nice and decent rock, smaller than a softball but it will work. So... how do I break it? I don’t know what it's made of, so I don’t know how hard it is. I’ll drop it on other rocks and hope for the best.

Damn my back is killing me, but after near enough 15 tries, it finally broke, and thankfully a piece is just like what I am looking for. Now I can use this as a kind of a knife...and now to find vine, rope, string, something.

Relatively easy, with such wonderful ambience finding a vine thin but sturdy was a chore, but not hard. Now a hard stick, Oak ideally. Also not difficult, now to split the stick down the middle and make a crude axe. Failure. Alright, sticks are not as easy to split apart as initially assumed. But I refuse to use softer wood. I need it to last long enough to make a crafting table and a better axe.

Water, I’ll soak it in some water for a bit. Should help soften it up and while I wait, I’ll find some food. I am running low on time now, as it's early afternoon and I need to find food, make the axe and try to secure shelter.

So I could kill an animal for food, forage some food, what else? Can't feed off sunlight sadly but what can you do? Having never killed an animal personally nor taken any hunting classes I think foraging is my best bet.

And after wandering, I found some bright red berries but, haha I’mnot stupid. Could be toxic, so I do a few tricks I learned in a survival book to see if I can eat them. My memory is not perfect but this should work. First rub the berries juice on your arm and wait 15 min and see if it burns, itches or shows any acidic properties. You know sitting and waiting is very boring, I should try and make a basket to carry this stuff while I wait for the tests to work.

Finding some dry grass and relatively flexible twigs I get to work. I know weaving would be most effective but with humble childish nature outings and playing to draw upon, I go for the less durable but easier option, tying them to branches like weak strings... and doing it a lot.

By the time 1/3 parts of the basket is done the test is over. Sticky, slightly itchy but nothing abnormally so. Next, I do the same thing on my lips, a slightly more sensitive part of the body. Same trick and I continue with the basket. Next place a small amount on the tongue. And this is where my tongue hurts because it's rather astringent, so I assume its edible but nasty tasting. Finally, I consume a very small quantity, namely less than half a berry and wait. Slight stomach discomfort but it is better than nothing. I eat a small handful and place about 5 handfuls in my new basket. The basket is small, berries are falling through holes but it is better than my hands.

On my way back, the short distance to the river gives me time to ponder what I did to deserve this rather than a heavenly afterlife. Like I get it, bad luck and all but still it’s a bit unfair as I am now the court jester to a demented king namely Felix. Hopefully, he's not crackers enough to hang me for a bad pun.

Now let us see, yeah the wood is a little bit softer. I would like to leave it longer but the night waits for no man and it is quickly approaching. With a slight split, I lodge the sharp rock in the middle and tie it the best I can in. Before I put the rock in I had cut a hole in a tree which is now bleeding resin. I tie 2 sticks either side as support and then drip resin onto the joint hoping it helps stick it. Ingenius right “chuckles''. Knowing this axe may be the difference between thriving and dying. Pun intended of course.

Would you look at that, a crappy axe. I just bloody well hope it allows me to make a crafting table because that’s the only magic that’s gonna get me out of this crappy situation. None the less I feel proud, I made a tool a basic tool but with my own hands, no cheat sheet just pure ingenuity.

And that’s quickly snuffed out. It's too dark to be messing with the axe as dusk has fallen and I have an hour at the most to find reasonable shelter.

It's weird to say but with an axe in hand, I feel more secure. Safer “Moan” yeah nevermind. Rushing to try and find my way back to the tree I realise I am lost. As lost as you can be in an unfamiliar forest any old how.

Monsters are stirring in the darkness, I can feel a subtle mist seeping along the ground, And I see it, a zombie. The first monster anyone would normally see. Different, I can tell that just maybe it was once a real person.

Run or fight. With the pitiful fuel in my belly, I choose to at least try and fight. Try not to get bit. I don’t know what causes zombism or whatever it's called. With the axe in hand, I tighten my grip. It sees me. I can see the recognition of prey in its eyes. It's slow but it's getting faster as it comes for me like a bull, bad coordination but still functioning. I dodge to the right, it struggles to turn but I stumble in fear. With shaky legs, I stand up. Finding perch on a hard bit of earth.

“I can do this” I whisper “it’s a monster”. Nothing to be afraid of, you have killed thousands of them over your playtime. Feeling sweat trickle down my brow, heart beating like a drum. I take every ounce of willpower I can muster. But muster it I did.

It turns towards me once more. Grabbing a rock I chuck it at the zombie and miss terribly as it comes for me. I dodge again, kiting it more,more confident. Once it charges again I dodge to the right and hit it in the shoulder with my axe, an inch deep at most but damage non the less.

So very tired this kiting is exhausting me. I need to finish the fight. With all the will I can muster, I charge leaning to the right side of the zombie again and strike for the throat. A clean hit but it is not down, it grapples me to the ground. Trying its best to bite me I kick it away, axe in its neck I suddenly aim andI kick the axe deeper. The zombie is getting slower. It's dripping a thick, black blood. It gets more aggressive but slower as it keeps trying to scratch me but suddenly with a “Snap” the axe bites into the back of the neck. The zombie is down. Reclaiming my now filthy axe I quickly check its clothes. Unusable but in the pockets, I hope. Suddenly it grabs me and I stomp on its head before it pulls me down. Always double tap. That could have been dangerous. Always make sure they are dead. The adrenaline is wearing off.

Searching through its pockets I find a few scraps of paper, useless. I take some clothes that are not to degrade to be washed and used in crafting stuff. Like with my hands, crafting table won't accept this as an item. The zombie is at avisible speed degrading into almost energy like substance, sinking into the ground and letting off small particles of white and green light. Almost pretty. Now at least I know what happens when something or I die. I assume I'll drop some cool loot when that happens though.

Please have some good drops. Rotten flesh, should have known. I take it anyway in my basket, maybe i'll be able to make zombie jerky. Gross. I managed to find my way to the tree but this time my sleep-deprived and exhausted self falls asleep in relative speed. After making sure to cover myself in leaves of course. That night I had nightmares of being eaten by a zombie.

I awaken with a cold sweat ravenously hungry but still shivering. I don’t want to die. This is not a game, I had a life or death battle and shook it off with the idea of loot. I chastise myself for foolishness. I should have run. But I guess to thrive I need to kill. It's still dark so I try and catch some more sleep but my mind is plagued with nightmares. Maybe tomorrow will be easier.